Calls grow to boycott women’s peace forum in Essaouira over Israeli participation

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and its Moroccan counterpart (MACBI) have urged a boycott of the second Women’s World Forum for Peace, set to take place in Essaouira, Morocco, from September 19 to 21.

Organizers of the boycott say the forum, hosted by the group Women Warriors for Peace, serves as a “normalization platform” that hides Israel’s war on Gaza under the banner of peace and women’s empowerment.

PACBI and MACBI say that by promoting “coexistence” without addressing what they call Israel’s apartheid system and colonial occupation, the forum breaks the anti-normalization principles agreed on by Palestinian civil society. 

According to the anti-normalization principles, any joint activity with Israelis must recognize Palestinians’ basic rights under international law and form part of a shared struggle against occupation, conditions they say the forum does not meet.

The forum is expected to bring together activists, government officials, and researchers from several countries, including Morocco, Palestine, Iran, and France, alongside Israeli participants. 

For boycott advocates, the presence of Israeli representatives at an Arab-hosted event is a “blatant violation” of the boycott movement’s standards.

Critics accuse the forum of ignoring the devastation in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed since the war began, including more than 12,000 women. 

They said that women and children make up about 70 percent of casualties and warn that many women in Gaza face unsafe pregnancies, forced displacement, and the burden of becoming sole providers after losing family members.

The groups also stress that holding such a forum while Israel continues its military campaign in Gaza, along with raids and demolitions in the West Bank, only provides cover for what they call crimes of genocide and apartheid.

PACBI and MACBI have called on all Arab and Palestinian participants to withdraw from the Essaouira forum, urging people not to let “dialogue projects” be used as a tool to whitewash ongoing violence against Palestinians.