Anti-Normalisation Coordinator in Morocco Victim of a Brutal Attack

Moroccan human rights organisations and political parties reported a violent attack on the coordinator of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Morocco, Sion Assidon, who was found at his residence, where he lives alone in the coastal city of Mohammedia, slumped in a chair, unresponsive in a coma with visible injuries and bruises to his head and shoulders, after friends and colleagues were unable to contact the activist for several days.

They affirmed their continued rejection of normalisation and their exposure of Zionist plots in the country.

The movement affirmed that it “will continue to expose the Zionist project and its infiltrations in Morocco, and to reveal the complicity of companies and institutions with the occupation in its war of extermination against Gaza and its oppression through all legitimate peaceful means, including boycotts.”

For its part, the Moroccan Association for the Fight against Corruption (Transparency Morocco) stated that it is following, along with national and international public opinion, “the developments of this painful incident and the alarming health condition of this human rights activist, who underwent brain surgery and was admitted to intensive care and placed on a ventilator.” The association highlighted its efforts to uncover the details and circumstances of this shameful attack on this activist who opposes normalisation and treason.

The Moroccan association recalled the latter’s bold stances in support of Palestine and opposition to normalisation, as well as his history of struggle at the national level, where he paid the price of political arrest and imprisonment for more than ten years during the so-called “Years of Lead” for democracy, freedom, and transparency.

The statement noted that the coordinator of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement is “a political and human rights activist known, since his youth, for his relentless and persistent struggle against tyranny, Zionism, and imperialism. He has made tremendous sacrifices in the process, including kidnapping, torture, intimidation, and arrest.”

It’s worth noting that opponents of normalisation in Morocco are being subjected to a fierce campaign that has not stopped at demonisation, accusations of treason, and imprisonment for their support of the Palestinian cause and their demand to repeal normalisation with the Zionist entity. It has even reached the level of death threats.

The Makhzen regime has also escalated its campaign against human rights activists, journalists, and opponents of normalisation with the Zionist entity, significantly increasing the pace of persecution and harassment of those who oppose this destructive course of action through threats and intimidation by using the security services and the judicial authorities.

Born in 1948 to a Moroccan Jewish family, Sion Assidon came of age during a period of political turbulence in the kingdom.

He became a co-founder of the 23 March movement and was held as a political detainee under the late King Hassan II.

Since his release, Assidon has emerged as one of Morocco’s most visible advocates for Palestinian rights, devoting decades to campaigns against “zionist apartheid and the ongoing occupation”.

He has also been a central figure in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Morocco, and a vocal proponent of academic and cultural boycotts of zionist institutions.

Earlier this month, he was among a group of protesters in Casablanca rallying against the docking of Maersk shipping vessels in Moroccan ports, accusing the Danish company of transporting military components to the zionist entity and aiding its genocide in Gaza.

At the rally, Assidon and others also called for Morocco to sever diplomatic relations with the zionist entity, which were re-established in 2020 under the Abraham Accords brokered by the United States.