BDS calls for probe after pro-Palestine Moroccan activist found unconscious with head injuries
The BDS leader was reportedly found slumped in a chair, unresponsive, with visible injuries to his head and shoulder at his residence where he lives alone.
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Assidon has played a key role in pro-Palestinian activism in Morocco [Getty]
Moroccan pro-Palestine groups are demanding an urgent investigation after a prominent 77-year-old activist was found unconscious in his home with life-threatening injuries.
Police officers on Monday obtained permission from judicial authorities to enter Sion Assidon's residence in the coastal city of Mohammedia, where he lives alone, after friends and colleagues were unable to contact the activist for several days.
Officers entered Assidon's home and found him slumped in a chair, unresponsive, with visible injuries to his head and shoulder, according to the Moroccan Front Against Normalisation, the group Assidon is a member of.
He was rushed to a private clinic in the city, where doctors performed emergency brain surgery before placing him in intensive care on artificial ventilation.
Mohamed El-Ghoufri, the Front's national coordinator, said medical examinations revealed bleeding to both his brain and lungs.
"His condition remains critical," said the activist, noting that the group's members have not been allowed yet to see him as of Thursday due to his unstable health situation.
The Palestinian National Committee for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement said it was "deeply concerned" about the incident.
In a statement, the committee joined the Moroccan Front, a coalition of 19 trade unions, civil society organisations, and human rights groups, which urged Moroccan authorities to conduct a "swift and transparent investigation and to disclose all details of the case".
Assidon is a well-known figure in Moroccan political life, working with leftist and pro-democracy movements over several decades.
Born in 1948 to a Moroccan Jewish family, he came of age during a period of political turbulence in the kingdom.
He became a co-founder of the 23 March movement, a clandestine Marxist-Leninist organisation, 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 "Israeli 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 Israeli 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 Israel and aiding its genocide in Gaza.
At the rally, Assidon and others also called for Morocco to sever diplomatic relations with Israel, which were re-established in 2020 under the Abraham Accords brokered by the United States.
