Orange Announces Withdrawal of Advertisement Featuring Western Sahara as Part of Morocco Following Polisario Front Protest

 

Orange telecommunications company has announced its intention to withdraw an advertising billboard installed along the AP-7 motorway in the Elche–Valencia direction after it featured a map depicting the occupied territory of Western Sahara as part of Moroccan territory. The decision came following an official protest submitted by the Polisario Front Representation in Spain.

In a press statement issued yesterday, Wednesday, the Polisario Front Representation in Spain said that its representative in Spain, Abdallah Arabi, had submitted an official complaint to the company’s management on August 25, following the installation of the billboard, which included an unlawful depiction of Western Sahara within a map of the Moroccan occupying state.

The statement explained that, following the formal complaint and media coverage of the incident, the company informed the Polisario Front Representation of its intention to withdraw the advertising campaign “within the next few days.”

Abdallah Arabi had stated following the publication of the advertisement that including Western Sahara on a map of Morocco constituted a “clear violation of international law.” He recalled that the territory has a separate and distinct legal status from Morocco, and that any attempt to present it as part of Moroccan territory has no basis in international law.

The Sahrawi official stressed that economic activities in Western Sahara cannot disregard the rights of the Sahrawi people, emphasizing that their consent can only be expressed through their legitimate representative, the Polisario Front. He reiterated that “Western Sahara is not Morocco.”

Arabi also warned that the use of maps incorporating Western Sahara into Morocco in advertising campaigns is not merely a commercial mistake, but contributes to misleading public opinion and normalizing the reality of occupation through messages reaching large numbers of citizens, particularly when displayed on billboards along heavily trafficked motorways.

The Polisario Front Representation in Spain welcomed the company’s notification of its intention to withdraw the advertisement, but stressed that it would “remain vigilant” until the actual removal of the billboard or its replacement with an alternative advertisement that does not depict Western Sahara as part of Moroccan territory.

The representation warned that, if the withdrawal is not carried out “within a reasonable period of time,” it would take all appropriate legal measures to defend the rights and interests of the Sahrawi people.

These developments come against the backdrop of an international legal framework affirming the separate and distinct status of Western Sahara from Morocco, a principle reinforced, among other things, by rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the application of agreements between the European Union and Morocco to the territory of Western Sahara.

The Polisario Front maintains that attempts to impose commercial or advertising maps and representations incorporating Western Sahara into Morocco are merely propaganda efforts aimed at misleading public opinion and attempting to impose a colonial fait accompli. Such attempts, it argues, cannot alter the territory’s legal status or replace the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.