In Episode 16 of the CounterVortex podcast [14], Bill Weinberg discusses how Berbers, Palestinians, Sahrawi Arabs and other subjugated peoples of the Middle East and North Africa are pitted against each other by the Great Game of nation-states. Berbers in Morocco [20] and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories [21] face identical issues of cultural erasure, yet Moroccan support for the Palestinians and retaliatory Israeli support for the Berbers [22] constitute an obstacle to solidarity. The Sahrawi Arabs are meanwhile fighting for their independence from Morocco in their occupied territory of Western Sahara. But the Arab-nationalist ideology of their leadership is viewed with suspicion by the territory's Berbers—leading to Arab-Berber ethnic tensions [23] in Morocco. Algeria, Morocco's regional rival, is backing the Sahrawi struggle [24], while denying cultural rights [25] to its own Berber population. But there are also signs of hope. Arabs and Berbers were united in the 2011 Arab Revolution protests in Morocco, and greater Berber cultural rights were a part of the constitutional reform [26] won by those protests. Algeria, facing resurgent Berber protests [27], adopted a similar constitutional reform [28] in 2016, and has taken other measures to expand recognition of Berber cultural rights [29]. And the new protest wave in Morocco's Rif Mountains over the past year has united Arab and Berber [30]. These developments point to hope for the subaltern peoples of MENA to overcome the divide-and-rule game and build solidarity. Listen on SoundCloud [15], [16] and support our podcast via Patreon [17].
Music: L'espoir by Ferhat Mehenni [31]
Production by Chris Rywalt [32]
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