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 Palestine |  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic |
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Official relations between the two countries of Palestine and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) do not exist, being as neither country is fully recognised internationally. Despite this, there are informal connections. [1]
Both nations have an Arab majority. The future founder of Polisario Front, El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, used to meet Palestinian leaders during 1970s in Lebanon, [2] in which he was influenced by the Israeli occupation. Fearing a future Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, the Polisario Front was established, in a similar format to the Palestine Liberation Front. [3] The flag of Western Sahara draws from the flag of Palestine. The influence of the Sahrawi independence movement draws a level of sympathy toward Sahrawis among Palestinians. [4]
George Habash, one of the founders of Palestine's PLO, met with Brahim Ghali in 1979 and indicated solidarity with the Western Saharan cause. [2] Both countries share similar styles of struggling, including conducting guerrilla warfare, against both Israel and Morocco. [5]
In recent years, fears of growing Palestinian–Sahrawi contact prompted the Moroccan authorities to censor them, allying with a number of groups that opposed any alliance. In 2016, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee with Western Sahara was banned from entering Gaza by Hamas. [2]
The 2020 Israel–Morocco normalization agreement later laid speculations on deepening future relations between Palestine and the SADR, amidst censorship.
On 10 October 2023, the Polisario Front expressed support for the Palestinian people. [6] On 15 October, Sahrawi Ambassador to Algeria, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, met with the PFLP political representative to Algeria, Nader Qaisi, at the Sahrawi Embassy in Algiers. [7] SADR was among the countries that condemned Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion. [8]
Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwest coast of Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 80% is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. It has a surface area of 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is the second most sparsely populated country in the world and most sparsely in Africa, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at about 500,000, of which nearly 40% live in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara.
The politics of Western Sahara take place in a framework of an area claimed by both the partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the Kingdom of Morocco.
Western Sahara, formerly the Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro, which is an independence movement based in Tifariti and Bir Lehlou. The Annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco took place in two stages, in 1976 and 1979, and is considered illegal under international law.
The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, is a rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement claiming Western Sahara.
Spanish Sahara, officially the Spanish Possessions in the Sahara from 1884 to 1958, then Province of the Sahara between 1958 and 1976, was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled by Spain between 1884 and 1976. It had been one of the most recent acquisitions, as well as one of the last remaining holdings, of the Spanish Empire, which had once extended from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies.
Elections in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic are regularly held by the government-in-exile at a national, regional and local level. Elections are considered to be held under a non-partisan participatory democratic regime, as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the Polisario Front structures are parallel.
Bir Lehlou is an oasis town in north-eastern Western Sahara, 236 km from Smara, near the Mauritanian border and east of the border wall, in Polisario Front-held territory. It has a pharmacy, a school and a mosque. It is the head of the 5th military region of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and was the factual temporary capital of SADR until Tifariti became the temporary capital in 2008. It is also the name of a Daïra of the Wilaya of Smara, in the Sahrawi refugee camps.
The flag of Western Sahara, also known as the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, uses a national flag consisting of a black, white and green horizontal tricolor charged with a red star and crescent in the center stripe and a red chevron at the hoist. It is used on SADR-controlled areas, while the Moroccan flag is used on the occupied parts of Western Sahara.
The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the Polisario Front against Spanish colonial forces from 1973 to 1975 and the subsequent Western Sahara War against Morocco between 1975 and 1991. Today the conflict is dominated by unarmed civil campaigns of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed SADR state to gain fully recognized independence for Western Sahara.
The politics of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic refers to politics of the Polisario Front's proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a country in North Africa with limited recognition by other states, controlling parts of the Western Sahara region.
In the 1970s in Morocco, after two coup attempts in 1971 and 1972, the patriotism engendered by Morocco's participation in the Middle East conflict and by the events in Western Sahara contributed to Hassan's popularity and strengthened his hand politically despite serious domestic turmoil. The king had dispatched Moroccan troops to the Sinai front after the outbreak of Arab-Israeli War in October 1973. Although they arrived too late to engage in hostilities, the action won Morocco goodwill among other Arab states. Shortly thereafter, the attention of the government turned to the annexation of then Spanish Sahara from Spain, an issue on which all major domestic parties agreed.
Sahrawi nationality law is the law of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic's (SADR) governing nationality and citizenship. The SADR is a partially recognized state which claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, but only administers part of it. The SADR also administers Sahrawi refugee camps.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic:
Sahrawi Republic–South Africa relations are the current and historical relations between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Western Sahara and the Republic of South Africa. Formal diplomatic relations were established at ambassador level in 2004, during the Thabo Mbeki government. A Sahrawi embassy was opened in Pretoria, and the South-African embassy in Algiers was accredited to the SADR.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, also known as the Sahrawi Republic and Western Sahara, is a partially recognized state, recognised by 46 UN member states and South Ossetia, located in the western Maghreb, which claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, but controls only the easternmost one-fifth of that territory. Between 1884 and 1975, Western Sahara was known as Spanish Sahara, a Spanish colony. The SADR is one of the two African states in which Spanish is a significant language, the other being Equatorial Guinea.
The Western Sahara peace process refers to the international efforts to resolve the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict has failed so far to result in permanent peace between Morocco and the Polisario Front. The standing issues of the peace process include Sahrawi refugees, and human rights in Western Sahara.
Sahrawi nationalism is a political ideology that seeks self-determination of the Sahrawi people, the indigenous population of Western Sahara. It has historically been represented by the Polisario Front. It came as a reaction against Spanish colonialist policies imposed from 1958 on, and subsequently in reaction to the Mauritanian and Moroccan invasions of 1975.
Khadidja Hamdi is a Sahrawi politician and activist. She is one of two women ministers in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) Government and holds the post Minister for Culture.
The 2020–2024 Western Saharan clashes, also called the Guerguerat crisis, Moroccan military intervention in Guerguerat or Second Western Sahara War, is an armed conflict between the Kingdom of Morocco and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), represented at the United Nations by the Polisario Front, in the disputed region of Western Sahara. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, which is largely occupied by Morocco, but 20–25% is administered by the SADR. The violence ended a ceasefire between the opposing sides that had held for 29 years in anticipation of a referendum of self-determination that would have settled the dispute. Despite the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara in 1991, the referendum was never held.
Relationship between the Kingdom of Morocco and the State of Palestine has been historically deep, yet complicated. Morocco has a consulate in Gaza while Palestine has an embassy in Rabat.
Evoking the serious developments in Palestine, the Permanent Bureau of the Polisario Front reaffirmed the solidarity of the Sahrawi people with the Palestinian people.
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