Sion Assidon | |
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 Sion Assidon in 2016 | |
| Transparency International | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 1948 Safi, Morocco |
Sion Assidon (born in 1948) is a Moroccan human rights activist.
Sion Assidon | |
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| Sion Assidon in 2016 | |
| Transparency International | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 1948 Safi, Morocco |
Sion Assidon (born in 1948) is a Moroccan human rights activist.
Zion Assidon was born in 1948 to a Moroccan Berber Jewish family in Safi. His family moved to Agadir shortly after, and then to Casablanca after then 1960 Agadir earthquake. He later moved to France, where he studied mathematics in Paris and became influenced by Marxist ideas. He decided to return to Morocco in 1967, after completing his studies. [1]
In 1986, he founded an IT company before taking over the family business.
During the Years of Lead, Assidon was involved in the fight for the establishment of democracy in his country, which led to his arrest in 1972. He spent 12 years in prison along with fellow opposition leaders and political dissidents. [2]
Assidon is a “resolute defender of the Palestinian cause". [3] [4]
In 2005, he founded "Transparency Maroc" of which he became the director and he is a member of the Executive Board and the Board of Directors of Transparency International. [5]
In 2011, he protested against Hindi Zahra with the Casablanca group of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) because the singer had decided to hold a concert in Tel Aviv. [6]
In April 2012, he protested the visit of Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe'er, declaring:
"We should not receive artists or athletes from this country as if nothing had happened. It is abnormal to pretend everything is fine. These are people who are inflicting apartheid on the Palestinian people. We must not receive them but also show solidarity with the Palestinian people.” [7]
Assidon is married to an American Palestinian. They have a son named Millal.
He is a Jewish atheist who believes in freedom of religion. [8]
Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic coast of the Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a population of about 3.71 million in the urban area, and over 4.27 million in Greater Casablanca, making it the most populous city in the Maghreb region, and the eighth-largest in the Arab world.
Marrakesh Menara Airport is an international airport serving Marrakesh, the capital city of the Marrakesh-Safi region in Morocco. It is an international facility that receives several European flights as well as flights from Casablanca, some of the Arab world nations and from 2024, flights from North America. The airport served over 6.3 million passengers in 2019.
The 2003 Casablanca bombings, commonly known as May 16, were a series of coordinated suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. That night, twelve suicide bombers loyal to the Salafia Jihadia organization detonated bombs hidden in their backpacks in the Casa de España restaurant, the Hotel Farah, the Jewish Alliance of Casablanca, and sites near the Belgian consulate and an old Jewish cemetery. The attacks, which were later revendicated by al-Qaeda, were the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's history, claiming the lives of forty-five people and injuring at least 100. Despite their deliberate targeting of Jews, none of the victims were Jews as the attack occurred during Shabbat.
During the 19th century, Botbol was one of the twenty most common surnames within Moroccan Jewish community. The origin of this surname is likely derived from the Hebrew shoresh ט.ב.ל (ṭ.b.l) meaning "purification in a ritual bath". The name means "father of the bath", i.e., the one in charge of this ritual bath. In Arabic (بوطبول), it means "father of the tambourine" which indicates a profession, i.e., the maker or salesman of this popular Moroccan musical instrument, and is the name of a musical family from Fes. The Botbol name is now found in Morocco and in the Moroccan diaspora.
Moulay Hassan is Crown Prince of Morocco. He is the elder child of King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Princess Lalla Salma. He has a younger sister, Princess Lalla Khadija. He is named after his grandfather Hassan II. Upon his accession, he is expected to bear the regnal name Hassan III. In 2013, he began participating with his father at public official engagements.
Abraham Serfaty was an internationally prominent Moroccan Marxist-Leninist dissident, militant, and political activist, who was imprisoned for years by King Hassan II of Morocco, for his political actions in favor of democracy, during the Years of Lead. He paid a high price for such actions: fifteen months living underground, seventeen years of imprisonment and eight years of exile. He returned to Morocco in September 1999.
Chakib Benmoussa is a Moroccan diplomat and politician. He previously served as the interior minister of Morocco and has been the lead negotiator for the Moroccan side in the Western Sahara conflict. Since December 2012, he is serving as the Moroccan ambassador to France. On October 7, 2021 he was appointed as the education and sports minister.
Khnata Bennouna is a Moroccan author of novels and short stories.
Jean-François Zevaco was a French-Moroccan architect born in Casablanca. He is considered an emblematic figure of the modernist architectural movement in Morocco and in Africa, and his legacy is important in terms of the number of constructions built across Morocco, the diversity of his works, and their international aura.
Inwi is a telecommunications company in Morocco. One of the three major Internet service providers in the country, it is a subsidiary of the group SNI and the Kuwaiti group Zain.
Salim Halali or Salim Hilali was an Algerian singer who performed Algerian music and Arabic Andalusian classical music. He was a pop singer rather than a professional performer of traditional Arab-Andalusian music, in which he had no formal training. Many of his songs remain popular in North Africa and among Jewish and Muslim North African communities in France, where he is "an iconic figure of French-Arab cabaret music."
The Museum of Moroccan Judaism is a museum of Jewish life in Morocco in Casablanca, Morocco.
Mustapha Bakkoury is a Moroccan businessman, engineer and politician. He is chairman of the board of the Moroccan Solar Energy Agency and the council president of the Casablanca-Settat region. He was born in Mohammedia, but is a native of Taounate.
The architecture of Casablanca is diverse and historically significant. Casablanca, Morocco's economic capital, has a rich urban history and is home to many notable buildings in a variety of styles. Throughout the 20th century, architecture and urban development in Casablanca evolved in a way that was simultaneously specific to the city's contexts, and consonant with international ideas.
Serge Berdugo is a Moroccan lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Tourism for both Prime Ministers Mohammed Karim Lamrani and Abdellatif Filali between 1993 and 1995. Berdugo is a leader within the Moroccan Jewish community, serving as Secretary-General of the Israelite Community Council of Morocco and President of the Israelite Community of Casablanca.
The Casablanca Uprisings of 1952 were a violently repressed anti-colonial popular movement that took place on the 7th and 8th of December 1952 in Casablanca, Morocco in response to the French assassination of the Tunisian labor unionist Farhat Hached in Tunis on 5 December. The Union Générale des Syndicats Confédéres au Maroc (UGSCM) labor union and the Istiqlal Party organized two days of strike and protests. Over 3,500 workers assembled in demonstrations that were violently dispersed by the French police. Hundreds of Europeans rampaged into Moroccan neighborhoods leading to hundreds protestors killed or wounded.
Abdelkader Moutaa is a Moroccan actor known for his contributions to the Moroccan film and television industry.
The State Bank of Morocco was a quasi-central bank established in 1907 following the Algeciras Conference, to stabilize the Moroccan currency and serve as a vehicle for European and especially French influence in the Sultanate of Morocco. Following the independence of Morocco, it was replaced in 1959 by the newly created Banque du Maroc, known since 1987 as Bank Al-Maghrib.
Haim Botbol is a Moroccan musician.
The Casablanca Children's Soup Kitchen was a children's soup kitchen in the Mellah of Casablanca, Morocco. Founded in 1941 by local architect Elias Suraqui, the organization operated until 1964. The institution was financed and supported from the year 1948 by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), l'Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE), and private donors as well.
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