Jewish Moroccans in the Netherlands: Balancing Between Cultures

Here is an article from Radio Netherlands about Moroccan Jews who live in the Netherlands. They are all at once, Moroccan, Jewish, Dutch, and also sometimes Israeli.
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Jewish Moroccans in the Netherlands: Balancing Between Cultures
Published on : 3 July 2011

Stories about Dutch Moroccan youths verbally abusing or physically threatening Jews crop up fairly frequently in the Dutch media, and politicians - especially Geert Wilders and the Freedom Party - call for hard measures against “Moroccan street terrorists". What's it like to live in the Netherlands if you're both Jewish and Moroccan?

By Jannie Schippers and Mohamed Amezian

Victor Bohbot, 56, has seen the climate in the Netherlands change over the years: “I came here in 1974, the entire country was pro Israel. When I was a soldier in the IDF, met lots of Dutch truck drivers who would come to Israel to volunteer."

Until very recently, Victor ran a number of restaurants in Amsterdam, Deventer and Bussum. In 1984, he and his family left ‘for good’ and went back to Israel. However, four years later they were back in the Netherlands. “It's difficult. What am I? For the Dutch, I'm a foreigner but I'm also not a real Israeli or Moroccan".

Cross the road
Out on the street, some people comment on the Star of David that Victor wears around his neck. He says, “A little while ago, I was standing outside when a group of kids came along, about 14, 15 years old." When he greeted them in Moroccan slang (‘la bas?), everything was all nice and friendly: “When they realise I speak Arabic, everything is okay on the surface, but the way they look at me..."

Victor says that in recent years numerous Jewish Moroccans have emigrated to Israel from France: “There have been a lot more incidents in France; people really don't feel safe. I know someone who goes back and forth every week. He sent his family to Israel but he still works in Paris." Victor does not believe that it will get as bad in the Netherlands as it is in France: “The Jewish community here in the Netherlands is much smaller and much less visible". Even though Victor says he will never leave his Star of David at home because it's safer, he won't wear a yarmulke in the streets and only puts it on when he gets to the synagogue. “I don't think it's necessary to be provocative. If I see a problem walking towards me, I cross the street. My brother thinks that's cowardly; he doesn't let anybody get away with being abusive.”

"I'm one of them"
Jacob al-Malagh, a 47-year-old Jewish Moroccan mechanic, comes into contact with Dutch Moroccans on a daily basis: “About 70% of my customers are Moroccan; I work with Moroccans and for Moroccans." He meets members of the small Moroccan Jewish community in the Netherlands – between 50 and 100 people – at the synagogue and during the holidays. Jacob says his strong bond with Israel has never caused him a problem in all the 26 years that he has lived in the Netherlands. “Moroccans treat me like one of them and according to the Dutch, one says I'm an Israeli, another sees me as a Moroccan or a Jew, while another thinks I'm Dutch. I really don't care what anyone thinks.”

Bad reputation
Both Jacob and Victor say that politicians such as Geert Wilders only make the problem worse. According to Victor, “He has very extreme ideas. Wilders is not pro-Israel, his real focus is internal Dutch politics." Jacob avoids politics: “As soon as someone starts yammering about Arabs and Jews and Muslims I say sorry, that's nothing to do with me. What other people do, that's up to them. I live in the Netherlands and I want to live in peace with everybody else".

Victor has noticed that both his son and daughter have distanced themselves from the land of his birth: “My son doesn't want to admit that his father is from Morocco. Moroccans have a really bad reputation here in the Netherlands and he doesn't want to be a part of that. But I can't forget where I come from. My grandfather always used to say that if you don't know where you come from, you’ll never know where you're going."

(Partial) History of Jews in Morocco
After the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Jews were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, including what is now modern Morocco. In 1492, Jews and the remaining Moslems were expelled from Catholic Spain and many ended up in Morocco. Moroccan Jews had a specific niche in society and had their own synagogues. After the establishment of the state of Israel in the wake of the Second World War, many Jews left the country, fearing outbreaks of religiously-motivated violence. There are less than 5,000 Jews left in Morocco.

Soccer Player Ibrahim Afellay Role Model for Moroccan Immigrant Communities in the Netherlands

Here is a piece from Radio Netherlands about the Moroccan Soccer (Football) Player Ibrahim Afellay and his positive infleunce on youth in Moroccan immigrant communities in the Netherlands.
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Football star Afellay shines a light for Moroccan immigrant community
Published on : 26 May 2011 - 3:17pm | By Johan van der Tol


Ibrahim Afellay plays for FC Barcelona in their Champions League final against Manchester United on Saturday. Though he hasn’t yet had much field time at the European level for the club, ‘Ibi’ is already a star. The Dutch footballer has become a role model for children from Moroccan immigrant communities in Barcelona and back home in the Netherlands.

To what does Ibi owe his popularity?

According to talent scout for Ajax Amsterdam Mohammed Boussatta, Ibi enjoys a good image. “It’s the way he presents himself in the media, what he’s like in public and how he treats his family. Despite getting to the top, he hasn’t forgotten where he came from,” says Boussatta.

Spare ground
Apart from looking after his mother and other relatives – his father died when he was young – Ibi is recognized as someone who provides for the wider community. He funded a project to lay artificial turf on some spare ground in Al Hoceima. Now kids in the northern Morocco town can kick a ball around.

When he was young, Mr Boussatta himself used to kick a ball around. The Ajax scout shared a small square in his Amsterdam neighbourhood with future soccer stars such as Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit. He would also see a whole generation of Dutch-Surinamese footballers grow up, including Clarence Seedorf.

So, will there be a generation of Dutch-Moroccan footballers in Ibi’s wake? Mr. Boussatta is optimistic.

“I think they’ll be even better, because Moroccan kids still play a lot on the street or on odd patches of ground. That’s why they have so much skill: there’s a mix of Brazilian technique, African mentality and Dutch tactics. That makes a player like Afellay, and those who’ll follow him, even more interesting.”

Ordinary kid
Sociologist Iliass El Hadioui is a fellow member of the Moroccan-Dutch community. According to Mr El Hadioui: “Afellay is still a kid; he comes across as nice. He behaves ordinarily – the way he’s still connected to the neighbourhood in Utrecht where he grew up and to his religion.”

“The way he still observes Ramadan is especially important, that he still fasts even when he’s playing top-level soccer. It’s physically draining. While other players choose the easier way, he practises his faith in terms of spirituality and religion. That’s won him lots of points with Moroccan kids.”

Beyond the field
Mr El Hadioui has done a lot of research into the street life of kids from Moroccan and Turkish communities in the Netherlands. According to the sociologist, they find ‘macho’ sports such as kick-boxing and football important because opponents can be outplayed and humiliated.

Ibi appears to have popularized the game among Dutch-Moroccan youth. His story has allowed young men in his community to realise they can also succeed beyond the football field, says Mr El Hadioui.

Role models evolve naturally
Youth from the Moroccan immigrant community figure relatively high in Dutch crime statistics. Can Ibi do something about that? Mr El Hadioui doesn’t think the footballer should necessarily take part in a government campaign to steer them away from trouble or towards bettering their quality of life. “Role models evolve naturally,” he said.

“As soon as the government or some other group makes use of them in a campaign, the kids on the street know that it’s cooked up. I think that would be counter-productive.”

(mw/kh)

Moroccan MP and Social Security Fraud in the Netherlands

There has been a lot of news about the latest Moroccan elections. Forgive me for not re-posting the mostly uncritical acceptance of the status quo that those news pieces tended to show.
Here is an interesting short article from the Dutch News in English about a Moroccan MP who although well off was apparently also receiving public aid in the Netherlands.
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Moroccan MP Must not be Acquitted


THE HAGUE, 17/06/09 - Under pressure from Morocco, the Public Prosecutor in the Netherlands has requested acquittal for a member of the Moroccan parliament that misappropriated 130,000 euros in the Netherlands via years of social security fraud, says PvdA MP Hans Spekman. He suspects "class justice."

The suspect, who holds Dutch as well as Moroccan nationality, received welfare benefit payments from Utrecht city council for 11 consecutive years. Six years ago, the police received a tipoff that he was a council member in Morocco and had a country house and a chicken farm in that country. Due to all his possessions, he had no entitlement to benefit.

The suspect has meanwhile risen to become an MP in Morocco. He is said to have defrauded the council of 130,000 euros. But the public prosecutor in Utrecht has now requested acquittal of the 68 year old man due to a lack of evidence that he had done this deliberately. The prosecutor also considered it was not proven that the man had his main residence in Morocco.

Spekman wants clarification by the cabinet. The PvdA MP was earlier an Alderman in Utrecht. He says the demand for acquittal "reeks of class justice" and suspects the public prosecutor has bowed to years of diplomatic pressure from Morocco. According to Spekman, the MP has meanwhile easily "been able to stash away" all kinds of possessions, such as houses and land in Morocco.

The magistrate will rule on 29 June. Spekman acknowledges that it is not customary for politicians to intervene in ongoing court cases, but finds the case too serious to let it go. He wants a statement from Social Affairs State Secretary Jetta Klijnsma.

Has 40 Years of Migration Helped Morocco?

There are a lot of things in the news right now about economic deals Morocco is entering in regarding power plants, fishing, cell phones, etc and big resorts that are going to be built in the country. This article taken from Radio Netherlands website seems a bit more interesting, it is looking at how 40 years of out migration from Morocco has affected the country.

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Has 40 years of migration helped Morocco?

By Philip Smet*

13-05-2009

Forty years ago saw the beginning of a stream of migration from Morocco to the Netherlands. The so-called "guest workers" wanted to earn money for their families at home. Today, around three million Moroccans live outside the country. In total they send more than three billion euros to the area they come from every year. Has it helped?

Fouad Haji from Rotterdam was born forty years ago in the Rif Mountains, the area along the Mediterranean coast from which many Moroccan men have left for Europe. They were later followed by their families. This is how Mr Haji, now a Rotterdam councillor, came to the Netherlands at the age of 13. He still visits his homeland regularly and is very critical about what migration has done for his country.
"In the first instance you would say migration has done a lot for the people of the Rif Mountains. You see beautiful, large newly-built houses. The people who stayed behind can depend on receiving financial support," says Mr Haji, who has just returned from a conference in Morocco, at which this very problem was discussed.

"But the disadvantage is that Rabat thinks that these people can look after themselves. The government leaves the region to fend for itself. All attention is focused on other regions in the country. That is annoying. If you look at the democratisation process, the level of education, depth of investment, industry and healthcare, then the Rif Mountains is still a deprived area. More than 60 percent of the money in Morocco is earned there, but it is not invested there. That annoys me."

History
In the year Mr Haji's was born, 1969, Morocco and the Netherlands reached an agreement on migration. Belgium, France, and Germany had already done so long before. The Moroccan government stimulated the migration of labour from the impoverished Rif Mountains to the wealthy European continent. Rabat hoped this would tame the rebellious region. As a result of the economic crisis in the 1970s, many of the Moroccan migrants did not return to the region. Many families followed the men. Today around three million Moroccans live outside the country, a large proportion of them born outside Morocco. In spite of the increasing integration there are substantial social problems surrounding the Moroccan community in these countries.

Investment
There are around a million Moroccans in France and roughly 380,000 in the Netherlands. There are also Moroccans in Spain, Germany, Italy, and in the Gulf States and North America nowadays as well. In total they send around 3.5 billion euros to their mother country via official channels every year, says Morocco researcher Paolo de Mas. Mr De Mas has been studying Morocco for more than 30 years and until recently was managing director of the Dutch Morocco Institute in Rabat. In addition another two billion euros come into the country in cash every year, he estimates.

Mr de Mas sees that the Rif Mountains has benefited little from the billions of euros that have come in from abroad. Banks may have opened branches in towns in the Rif Mountains, but they invest the money outside the region. Even migrant Moroccans do the same, says Mr de Mas:
"In the beginning they transfer money to their families, build them a new house in their village. That is always the first phase. Then they look to see whether they can do more to improve the standard of living. But once they have bought agricultural land and put in a few water wells, they invest their money in property such as hotels or apartments in the more prosperous parts of Morocco. The reality is that in the Rif Mountains for instance there is limited room for investment."

Lifestyle
It is clear that the money from abroad is an important economic factor for the whole of the country. But according to Mr de Mas, the family abroad also has a huge influence culturally and politically:
"When you look at lifestyle, the migrant regions have undergone a complete transformation in the last forty years. Morocco has been bombarded by external ideas, norms and values. For example on the age of marriage, on sex, but also on democracy, consumption levels, music. It is impossible to separate the increasing fundamentalism or conservatism from the enormous financial, moral and psychological influence from the West."

In Rotterdam, councillor Fouad Haji is glad that Western ideas on democracy are getting through to the Rif Mountains. He thinks it's up to the people who live there to do something about their situation. He is critical, but optimistic.
"People now understand that they can put pressure on the authorities via the media and politics and by organising themselves and taking to the streets. They couldn't do that before. And they understand that they can exert pressure by withholding the money that is sent to them. That you can use it to put the regime under pressure."

* rnw translation (nc)

Moroccan Government " Invites" Imams from Netherlands

This article was posted on Radio Netherlands website, it is pasted below:

At least 40 imams on surprise visit to Morocco

Published: Tuesday 28 October 2008 20:05 UTC

Last updated: Tuesday 28 October 2008 20:05 UTC

The governing bodies of mosques in the Netherlands are alarmed by the departure of at least 40 imams for a government-paid trip to Morocco. The authorities in Rabat invited the imams to Morocco and the clerics left without consulting the boards which administer the mosques. Nearly a quarter of the imams in the Netherlands are taking part in the trip.

A Moroccan organisation in the Netherlands says the Moroccan authorities have been increasingly interfering with the affairs of mosques in the Netherlands. The group says the imams feel they have no choice but to accept such invitations, a situation which it describes as "undesirable".

Labour MP Jeroen Dijsselbloem says the affair is yet another example of Moroccan government interference with Moroccans living in the Netherlands. He has asked the cabinet to raise the issue with the Moroccan authorities. As a result of the imams' unannounced departure, many Muslims went to the mosque for Friday prayers only to find them closed. There are around 170 Muslim houses of worship in the Netherlands.