The residents of Chefchaouen have protested against repainting their city in white after rumors egressed that the city council ordered the inhabitants to abandon the indigo.

The blue color to the city of Chefchaouen is not less than the Eiffel Tower to Paris or the status of Liberty to New York, except that using it on the buildings of the northern city began long before the two monuments were built.

It is the threat that this 6-century practice will be stopped on a whim is what urged the city’s inhabitants to lead a social media protest against what they thought was a city council decision.

The rumor that city council ordered the adoption of white rather than blue did not come from nothing. According to the French-language news source Le360, a group of people pretended to be city council officials asked people in the streets to exclusively use white on the facades of houses.

As soon as the rumor spread throughout the city, the inhabitants led a massive campaign on Facebook under a hashtag in Arabic that says “Don’t touch my city. Chefchaouen, the blue suits you”. They shared photos and videos of the city as well as posts condemning the decision.

Today, the city council released a communiqué debunking the rumor by stating that the authorities has never even considered such decision.

The indigo has been used on the city’s walls since the 15th century BC. The non-Christians that fled ethnic cleansing in Europe took refuge in the city, and the Jewish community at the time began using blue after the color of the sky in order to remind them of God. Ever since, it has been a practice that is passed down from generation to generation, and made the city unique.