Prominent Moroccan human rights activist Sion Assidon was found unconscious in his home on August 11, 2025, under what appear to be suspicious circumstances. Assidon is the national coordinator of BDS Maroc, a member of the General Secretariat of the Moroccan Front for the Support of Palestine and against Normalization, and a founding member of Transparency Maroc. After missing a solidarity sit-in with the Palestinian people that he planned, and not showing up for work or answering his phone over the previous weekend, his comrades and close friends contacted the police to enter the home forcibly on August 11. Sion was found sitting unconscious on his couch with visible injuries to his upper body, but still breathing. He was immediately taken to the local emergency room, where a scan revealed a hematoma in his brain with cerebral contusions as well as an infection in his lungs. He was operated on that night to decompress his brain. Afterwards, he was placed in intensive care with breathing assistance. He remains in a coma and is receiving treatment for his pulmonary infection. According to the latest public updates released by Assidon’s close friends on September 10, Assidon no longer requires breathing assistance and, thus, his medical team confirmed that his condition has stabilized, but still requires intensive medical care.
Since August 11, the Moroccan Front for the Support of Palestine and against Normalization, BDS, BDS Maroc, and Transparency Maroc have been publicly calling for authorities to investigate thoroughly and speed up disclosure about what happened to Sion. On August 19, 2025, local authorities released to the public preliminary information about their ongoing investigation. They claim that video footage from the street where Sion lives indicated his car had not moved since August 9. They also shared that there were no biological traces of other people in his house and personal belongings, like his phone, were located. Finally, they remarked that material was found in his garden, indicating that Sion had been pruning his trees on August 9, which a worker at his neighbor’s house also confirmed.
On August 22, BDS Maroc sent a letter to the office of the public prosecutor demanding they intensify efforts to uncover the truth about what happened to Sion. In particular, they requested that authorities employ forensic medicine to “elucidate this tragedy that has upset all who know Sion and all those who follow, near and far, his fight for dignity and justice.” As of the latest public updates from Assidon’s close friends on September 10, there was no comprehensive response from authorities to their demand for an intensified investigation into what happened to Assidon.
Who is Sion Assidon?
Sion Assidon is one of the most well-known human rights activists in Morocco. Over the last two decades, he has become perhaps most recognizable for his participation in Moroccan resistance to normalization with the State of Israel, particularly through campaigns geared towards academic, cultural, and economic boycott campaigns. Sion’s family is of Jewish heritage, and despite not identifying as a Moroccan Jew, Sion has been vocal about the relationship of Zionism to antisemitism, and the role that Zionists and the Moroccan State played in the mass migration of Moroccan Jews from their homeland to Palestine, particularly in the late 1960s and 70s.
Assidon’s activism for human rights and democracy in Morocco started over 50 years ago as part of The New Left, in particular, Marxist elements. He was imprisoned for over a decade, from 1972 to 1984, during the “Years of Lead,” a term used to refer to decades of intensive state oppression of opposition movements under the reign of King Hassan II. In multiple interviews, Assidon has affirmed that his political beliefs and activism were fundamentally shaped by the Palestinian cause and its relationship to human rights in Morocco. On top of being the national coordinator of BDS Maroc and a member of the General Secretariat of the Moroccan Front for the Support of Palestine and against Normalization, Assidon is one of the founders of Transparency Maroc, a Moroccan association dedicated to fighting corruption since 1996.
Why this matters now
The discovery of Assidon unconscious in his home comes as BDS Maroc, the Moroccan Front for the Support of Palestine and against Normalization, and, more broadly speaking, the Moroccan public’s opposition against the Israeli genocide in Palestine continues to expand across the country. Particularly, in the past few months, BDS Maroc’s organizing, alongside Morocco’s two largest labor unions, Union Marocain du travail (UMT), and Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT), has led to disruptions to Maersk shipments suspected to be carrying military weaponry to Israel. Several unionized dock workers reportedly boycotted the shipment, and large protests were organized at the ports in Tangier and Casablanca.
Morocco has been the site of enormous and consistent civilian protests of the Israeli-U.S. genocide in Palestine over the past 23 months, including demonstrations in major cities like Rabat that brought together tens of thousands of protestors. Despite this strong and visible popular rejection of Moroccan normalization with Israel and complicity in its war crimes, the state has continued to crack down on popular dissent, arresting activists, like Ismail Lghazaoui, and employing other tactics of repression. As confirmed by Assidon as recently as April 2025, “it has become almost impossible to protest in cities like Agadir and Meknes. Authorities are deploying every tool at their disposal to silence us.”
Beyond suppressing anti-normalization and anti-genocide activism, the Moroccan State shows no signs of lessening its commitment to diplomatic, military, commercial, cultural, and academic ties with Israel. As recently as February 2025, it was reported that the Moroccan army signed a contract to buy additional weaponry from Elbit Systems, making Israel Morocco’s third-largest weapon supplier. In May 2025, the Golani Brigade, which is accused of the war crime of killing 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza and digging mass graves to cover it up, trained with the Moroccan military in a military drill jointly organized with the United States Africa Command. Finally, cooperation agreements between Moroccan and Israeli academic institutions continue to expand.
Aside from the specific demands for continued and intensified investigation into the circumstances surrounding Assidon’s current conditions, including the implementation of forensic medicine, BDS Maroc and the Moroccan Front of Support for Palestine and against Normalization continue to organize and advocate for the end of normalization with Israel. This includes continued protests in Casablanca and Marrakesh, calls for economic boycotts of companies like Carrefour, and participation in the next Freedom Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza.
Bravery transcends religion or political ideology. Bravery is humanity rejecting fear; can’t recall who said that freedom is the choice to live without fear.
Hope he gets better soon.