Rabat - A Moroccan court Thursday banned an Amazigh party on the grounds that the law did not allow parties based on religion, language or ethnicity, judicial sources said Thursday. The court in Rabat confirmed the earlier decision of the Interior Ministry, which had refused to recognize the Democratic Amazigh Moroccan Party (PDAM), which had been established in July.
None of the other parties showed solidarity towards the PDAM, largely because the party had championed the full normalization of Morocco's relations with Israel.
The founder of the PDAM, Ahmed Dgharni, sparked a scandal in December by visiting Tel Aviv for a political conference.
The PDAM sought to represent Morocco's Imazighen (plural of Amazigh), also known as Berbers, regarded as the original inhabitants of North Africa before the arrival of Arabs and Islam.
Many estimates put the number of Imazighen at about 35 per cent of Morocco's population of more than 30 million, but most Moroccans have at least some Amazigh blood.
Morocco does not have Amazigh parties, though it has parties with many Amazigh members.
