A legislative petition calling for Moroccan citizenship to be granted to all children and grandchildren of Moroccan Jews has been submitted to the country’s House of Representatives.
Petition 321183 was submitted by Moroccan citizen El Houssain Benmessaoud to Speaker of the House of Representatives Rachid Talbi Alami and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Nadia Bouaida on April 30, 2026.
This is the second time the petition has been submitted. In 2024, it failed to obtain the requisite signatures to be considered. This time, the National Gateway for Citizen Participation has already begun accepting signatures for the second iteration.
At its core, the petition asks that Moroccan nationality be granted to all Moroccan Jews who had previously renounced it, and to all their children and grandchildren.
It noted that many Moroccan Jews had to emigrate, individually and collectively, for economic, religious, and other reasons, and their descendants abroad therefore lost their right to Moroccan nationality by descent over generations.
The petition notes that Moroccan Jews have been an integral component of the nation, historically united under the monarchy, and that Moroccan identity persists in the lives of Moroccan Jews abroad.
It requests that applicants be allowed to retain dual citizenship with their other nationalities, should the legislation come into existence.
It also calls for the creation of an independent national body for Jewish religious affairs, and the protection of Moroccan Jewish communities from discrimination or attacks – inside Morocco and abroad.
Not all Moroccan Jews support the idea
Not all the Jews in Morocco support the idea, however.
Jacky Kadoch, the president of the Jewish Community of Marrakech, told Sky News Arabia that descendants of Moroccan Jewish emigrants do not face any difficulties in obtaining citizenship or a passport, and that there is no need for a petition or a new law.
He also said that Jews are Moroccan citizens who have the same rights as all other citizens, regardless of religion, and that those promoting this issue are “simply trying to stir chaos.”
Kadoch said he personally has a list of more than 300 grandchildren who have obtained Moroccan citizenship without issues in recent years.
Jews of Moroccan origin can obtain Moroccan citizenship, as the right to such citizenship is conferred by filiation up to fourth-generation descendants. Additionally, in July 2011, an amendment was introduced to the Moroccan constitution, in which Judaism was mentioned as part of the Moroccan heritage.
It therefore appears that much of the petition's focus is on simplifying the process. For example, it calls for creating a national online portal to manage applications. It also appears to be a push for more integration, in that it asks the state to integrate descendants into economic, political, cultural, and social life.
While only an estimated 2,000 Jews still live in Morocco, a significant number of Israelis are of Moroccan descent and currently live in the country.
Estimates vary, yet some 500,000 to 1,000,000 Israelis have Moroccan ancestry, which, at roughly 10% of the population, makes them the second-largest ethnic group in Israel.