History of a Contentious Relationship - Morocco World News

By Samir Bennis

Morocco World News

New York, April 2, 2012

Throughout history, relations between Morocco and Spain have always been marked by tensions, conflicts and wars. The same equation has governed relations between Morocco and Spain since the end of the Arab-Muslim presence in Spain, through the War of Tetouan in 1859 and then throughout the twentieth century.

Given the nature of political, cultural and economic relations between the two neighboring countries, which reveal a lack of understanding and mutual respect, it is of great importance for both countries to promote a new approach towards one another, to give new impetus to bilateral relations and to implement all necessary means to achieve a real and sustainable improvement of their relations and settlement of disputes that have been at the heart of the tensions that surfaced between the two countries, as was the case during the second mandate of Jose Maria Aznar.

Given their long shared history and geographical proximity, these two peoples are called on to promote dialogue in order to safeguard the stability, peace and welfare in the Mediterranean, as well as to establish an atmosphere of trust. That said, we must not forget that the mistrust and misunderstanding between Moroccans and Spaniards have historical roots related to the perceptions that the collective consciousness of each country has forged about the other. From the Spanish side, the negative image that the collective consciousness has forged about Moroccans for over five centuries was mainly conditioned by the political, ideological and religious confrontation that has existed between Spain and Morocco since the fall of Granada in 1492.

From that date, we witnessed a process of reconstructing the identity and the historical reality of Spain. Indeed, having just put an end to the Muslim domination, all components of the Spanish society engaged in a process designed primarily to minimize, if not to deny the Muslim influence on the historical development of Spain, and in the construction of its identity and its historical personality. Guided by this desire to separate themselves from their Muslim past that made them different from the rest of Christian Europe, the Spaniards of the late fifteenth century banished from their geographical sphere anything that conjured up a relationship with that civilization.

The first step towards achieving this goal involved the abolition of the Arabic language from the Spanish public space. Accordingly, the identity of the Spaniards was to be built around the denial of what happened before the Reconquista, and the hostility vis-?-vis the ?infidel? Muslim. Thus, because of its geographical proximity and its belonging to the Muslim civilization, Morocco has suffered the brunt of the attacks and criticisms of chroniclers, theologians and Spanish travelers, who have used religious and cultural arguments to assert their supposed superiority compared to Moroccans.

It is from this time that a negative image of Moroccans took hold in Spain. Indeed, because of their religious and cultural differences from their northern neighbors in the Mediterranean, Moroccans have turned into a kind of repellent example for Spaniards. This negative image of Moroccans in Spain remained as topical during this period and resurfaced whenever the Spaniards were at war against them. The successive wars that have pitted Morocco and Spain, especially since 1859, have in fact confirmed among Spaniards the image of Moroccans as ?bloodthirsty savages?.

Moreover, nineteenth-century Spanish-Arabism played a significant role in updating a caricatured and demeaning image of Morocco and Moroccans. The representatives of this movement also embodied the difficulty of Spaniards to stop viewing the arrival of Arab-Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula as an accident of history that would have deviated the ?normal? historical trajectory of their country, and integrate the Arab-Muslim component in the construction of its identity and its historical personality.

One might argue that relations between Morocco and Spain could have been less turbulent if this misperception that each people have about the other had not been accompanied by a series of disputes that are the legacy of this tormented historic relationship. Added to the existence of prejudices on one side and the ?other? being across the Mediterranean, these disputes have remained major obstacles to a better understanding between them.

The agenda of relations between Morocco and Spain, indeed, continues to be conditioned by the high prominence of issues, such as emigration, fishing, the Sahara issue, drug trafficking and the question of Sebta and Melillia. A simple overview of relations between the two countries since 1956 is enough to show us how these conflicts have contributed in deepening the misunderstanding between Moroccans and Spaniards and prevented Hispano-Moroccan relations from developing further for the good of the two peoples.

The persistence of such disputes and the absence among Spanish and Moroccan officials of a genuine desire to seek equitable solutions to overcome their differences and to focus their energies on further converging strategic interests, casts uncertainty on the relations between the two countries. This is especially true that, even if we can find in Spain a group of intellectuals and politicians who advocate for genuine rapprochement between their country and Morocco, there is still another category which sees such relationships from the perspective of antagonism and regards their neighbor across the sea as an enemy to the interests and safety of Spain.

Samir Bennis is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Morocco World News.

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