Under the title "Morocco's Essaouira: The tolerant city where things have always been done differently," journalists Ray Hartley and Greg Mills underlined that "even as the great schism between the Muslim and Jewish religions deepened, Essaouira became the only Muslim city with a majority Jewish population, totalling 16,000. Jews."

In this article, illustrated with photos of the old medina (Mellah) of Essaouira, the newspaper recalled that the Jews of Morocco had always enjoyed the protection of the Kings of Morocco.

"As sub-Saharan Africa struggles to find a formula to better access investment from 88% of the global economy which lies outside the sub-continent, it might do well to look at what has been achieved in the ancient and modern versions of this Atlantic city", they stressed.

The daily paper recalled that the walls and city gates have been recognised by Unesco as "an exceptional example of a late-18th-century fortified town, built according to the principles of contemporary European architecture in a North African context" and declared a World Heritage Site.

Bayt Dakira, a Jewish heritage house, was built at Azoulay's (HM the King's advisor) instigation to honour the historical role of Jews in Morocco — the only museum of this kind in the Muslim world, the source noted.

"Among Essaouira’s economic advantages are its fisheries and its unique Argan trees, which produce oil and cosmetics. At the Beni Antar Cooperative outside Essaouira, 200 women are employed extracting the seed from the Argan nut. The industry survived the Covid-19 lockdowns by allowing women to crack the nuts at home," the daily added.

The revival of Essaouira and Morocco’s economic resurgences are evidence of how, then as now, policy and leadership matter, it concluded.