Married in Israel, a Moroccan couple can't get their marriage legally recognized by the kingdom. A court in Sefrou refused to validate the marriage, ruling that Israel is an «unrecognized entity». A Moroccan court has refused to legally recognize the marriage of a Moroccan couple that got married in Israel, according to Al Jazeera. A judge at Sefrou's court of first instance ruled, recently, that the marriage is invalid as Morocco does not recognize the Israeli entity as a sovereign country. In fact, two Moroccan Muslim nationals, who got married in Israel in May 2002, requested the court in Sefrou in August 2016 to validate their marriage. Parents of four children, the couple have been demanding the Moroccan authorities ever since to validate their marriage presenting the legal documents signed in Israel drafted in Arabic and Hebrew. However, deciding on the case, the above-mentioned court ruled indicating that the legal requirements that determine the validity of this marriage were not met. The court insisted that their marriage was conducted in Israel, which doesn't have the necessary status to «conclude such contracts». An unrecognized marriage Justifying its decision, the court stressed that «the administrative powers of a state called Israel have not yet been officially recognized» by Morocco. Commenting on the situation, the National Working Group for Palestine, an NGO that fights against normalization, sent Yabiladi a communiqué hailing the court's decision. «The ruling goes hand in hand with the legal proceedings adopted in Morocco, it also denounces occupation and normalization with the Zionist entity», wrote the organization in the same statement. More than that, the National Working Group for Palestine urged other courts in the country to follow the steps of the Sefrou first instance court pointing out that «even though these individuals are Moroccan, they have chosen to immigrate to Israel and be part of an occupying entity». The NGO seized the opportunity to call the Moroccan authorities to create «a legal framework that would criminalize normalization». For the record, Morocco and Israel have not had any formal relations since the outset of the second Intifada in 2000. The Kingdom suspended diplomatic ties with the entity.
