The Moroccan archives preserve a statement by three Moroccans born to Jewish families, who adhered to the principle that human dignity, freedom, and life transcend all sectarian affiliation. They wrote: “We, the undersigned, contrary to any sectarian approach, address this appeal to all those who have the privilege of considering themselves Moroccan Jews or Moroccan Jews, here in our country and throughout the world, and we urge them to express clearly their suffering as human beings, men and women, in the face of the crimes committed (…) to stand up to put an end to the bloodbath resulting from Israel’s suicidal terrorist policy.”
Today, on the seventy-seventh anniversary of his death, Zion Assidon departed from this world, leaving behind a keffiyeh that was associated with him and which he wore without interruption, especially in light of the war on Palestine, in marches, lectures, at union, human rights and cultural headquarters, at the Museum of Moroccan Jewish Cultural Heritage, and in filmed and recorded dialogues.
Sion Assidon, founder of the Moroccan branch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, is part of a Moroccan era in which Muslim, Jewish, secular, leftist, Islamic, nationalist and non-affiliated figures have taken the lead in defending the Palestinian cause, united only by the Moroccan flag, the Palestinian keffiyeh, and other humanitarian causes.
The deceased was born in the city of Agadir, and moved to Casablanca with his family after the devastating earthquake that struck it in 1960. He specialized in mathematics, and in his youth joined the New Left, and his name became associated with the radical Marxist-Leninist “March 23” movement, before he was arrested for 12 years on the grounds of this affiliation on major charges, including “attempting to overthrow the regime,” while he maintains that his crime was founding a newspaper with his comrades that addressed the citizens.
Assidon, whom his friends call “Al-Mu’ti” (the Giver), is opposed to all forms of racism. He lived refusing to associate his name with the label “Moroccan Jew,” or to link his principles to the social class to which his parents belonged, rejecting a citizenship that confines a person to determinants prior to his existence, to which he may belong, and which he may refuse to continue to belong to, even if he belongs to the second category.
After his release from prison, Assidon volunteered in the fields of promoting transparency and fighting bribery and various forms of corruption. He was one of the founders of Transparency Morocco, and his name was associated in his later years with human rights issues in Morocco and abroad through protest, statements, and initiatives, including issues of arrest on the grounds of opinion and expression, issues of press freedom, high prices, and political change.
Throughout his life, Sion Assidon rejected any distinction or preference between humanitarian principles and causes, telling Hespress: “The saying ‘Taza before Gaza’ is entirely erroneous; because Gaza is Taza, and Taza is Gaza, and both deserve attention, support, and mobilization. I don’t believe there is any competition between just causes, because we are prepared to stand by all just causes, whether inside or outside the country. The Palestinian cause, of course, is a prominent one; because the consequences of what is happening in Palestine are reflected in our trajectory as Moroccans; the current situation in Morocco is closely linked to what is happening in Palestine.”
Assidon, who had previously corresponded with Yasser Arafat to join the Palestine Liberation Organization along with Abraham Serfaty, strongly supported the Palestinian people's right to resist and take up arms against the occupier. His position was decisive regarding Moroccans who joined the Israeli army after the migrations of the second half of the twentieth century, stating:"Regarding the issue of the presence of Moroccan Jews in Palestine who migrated or were displaced, and who have begun to practice acts and deeds contrary to international law, such as colonialism, occupation, and settlement, they are all in violation of the law. We are dealing with war criminals, or criminals against humanity, and their status as Moroccans cannot exempt them from condemnation as criminals, because Moroccan nationality does not protect a criminal from the consequences of his crime."
Assidon believed that a systematic, organized daily boycott was a way to support Palestinians in ending the occupation and apartheid against them. He was always a proponent of the global and local “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, including academic and cultural boycotts, because “there is no university or institute in the Zionist entity that does not participate in some way in working with the army, without exception; including disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and the ‘hard’ sciences related to technology, etc. (…) A cultural boycott is necessary to refute the fabricated image that the occupiers are people with culture and humanitarian considerations who love beauty; because what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza, and also in the 1948 territories, shows that organizing ‘international’ festivals and extending invitations to artists from around the world is just an attempt to beautify the image.”
Regarding the Moroccan constitution’s recognition of the “Hebrew component” as part of the Moroccan identity, Assidon stressed that “the Jewish component is an integral part of the country’s history and its people,” but the mistake is calling this component “Hebrew” because “the common denominator among Moroccan Jews is not linguistic (…) in Morocco Hebrew was never a language of communication among members of the Jewish communities, as part of them spoke Amazigh, and the other part spoke Darija.”
The deceased also believed that Moroccans who profess Judaism are contrary to historical frameworks of Moroccans who converted to Judaism, not immigrants thousands of years ago, a view shared by prominent historians and specialists, including Ahmed Chehlan, Shlomo Sand, and Julian Cohen Lacassani. “Most of the adherents of the Jewish religion in the world, and in Morocco as well, are originally local inhabitants who entered the local religion in circumstances that enabled the success of the missionary work (...) at a time long before Judaism became a non-missionary religion and a minority religion.”
Assidon was adamant about the need to “expose” the racist nature of “Zionism,” saying that it is necessary to teach people that what should be opposed is Zionism and that the distinction between it and “any hostility towards a particular religion should be clear, because Zionism exploits religion and has nothing to do with it.” He then added: “We are fighting against Zionist racism, and we should not practice racism ourselves.”
As for the talk of “peace,” the Moroccan human rights defender adhered to it in its true sense, refusing to use it to justify oppression. He argued that “tolerance is not for criminals, just as coexistence is not between the oppressor and the oppressed, the occupier and the occupied, the practitioner of ethnic cleansing and the one on whom ethnic cleansing is practiced,” without this meaning forgetting the existence of “peaceful resistance (inside Israel) to racist Zionist policies,” and resistance from within Palestine to the occupation; and another resistance, which is “resistance to normalization, which is an integral part of the great democratic resistance, in order to change the situation in Morocco.”
