Moroccan Ambassador Omar Hilale pledged to build a bridge of peace with Israel as he lit the eighth candle of Hanukkah with his Israeli counterpart Gilad Erdan at a special ceremony in New York.
“There is no alternative to peace. We are all the sons of Abraham and the sons of Abraham, they always at the end of the day will sit together to make peace together and to build a future together for the next generation,” Hilale said at the ceremony.
A deep belief in peace, he said, is the reason he stood “today to light Hanukkah candles” which are symbols of hope. “Hanukkah is existing together. Hanukkah is loving each other. Hanukkah is rejecting violence. Hanukkah is building bridges between people and civilizations. This is the understanding we have in our hearts, Hilale said.
“Hanukkah is not a strange tradition in my country. …The Jewish people are part of our society, our religion, our people [and] our history,” he said. Morocco is very proud of its long history of cooperation with the Jewish people, he added.
He joined Israel’s mission in New York just one week after the announcement that his country had become the fourth Muslim nation to sign a normalization deal with Israel under the rubric of the US brokered Abraham Accords.
