Moroccan peace activist Sion Assidoun dead after “attack”

Sion Assidoun, Jewish Moroccan peace activist and leader of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Morocco, has died aged 78, according to a report on Hespress on November 7th. He was a prominent figure of Moroccan civil society, having spent 12 years in jail as a political prisoner under King Hassan II.

He was found unconscious in his Mohammedia home last August with head injuries sustained in unclear circumstances, and remained in a coma for 3 months. In a statement, BDS mentioned an “apparently deliberate attack” but the police investigation has focused on the possibility of an accident.  While his health had seemed to improve in recent weeks, he succumbed to a lung infection in a Casablanca hospital.

Assidoun will be remembered as a tireless defender of the Palestinian cause and staunch opponent of normalisation plans with Israel.

Hespress, BDS