Abraham Serfaty

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Abraham Serfaty (* 1926 in Casablanca , Morocco , † November 18, 2010 in Marrakech , Morocco) was a Moroccan dissident , critic of the regime and political activist during the lead years .

Life

Serfaty comes from a middle-class Sephardic-Jewish family who had lived in Tangier since they were expelled from Andalusia in the 15th century and who were based in the French part of the Protectorate of Morocco at the time of his birth . In 1949 he graduated from the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris in Paris as an engineer . Politically, he had been active since he joined the Moroccan Young Communist Movement in 1944. When he started studying in France in 1945, he joined the French Communist Party (PCF). After Serfaty's return to Morocco, he became a member of the country's communist party. The rulers in French Morocco arrested him in 1950, threw him in prison and imposed a forced detention period in France for six years.

Serfaty returned there after the independence of his homeland and was employed in the Ministry of Economic Affairs from 1957 to 1960, where he represented a mining policy in his country that was less dependent on foreign countries. From 1960 to 1968 he was director of research and development in the government's phosphates bureau , but resigned from his posts in solidarity with striking miners.

After the Six Day War in 1967, as a Jew, he turned away from the policy of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians and stood up for a Palestinian state. From 1968 to 1972 he taught at the Mohammedia Engineering School . During this time he also worked with the art magazine Souffles / Antifas , which was headed by Abdellatif Laabi .

Serfaty left the Moroccan Communist Party in 1970, which seemed too doctrinal to him, and became involved in the Marxist-Leninist Association Forward (Arabic: Illa al-Amam ). He was arrested for the first time in January 1972 and released under public pressure after severe torture. In March 1972 he went underground with his friend, who was also wanted, Abdellatif Zeroual . There he met his future wife, Christine Daure , who helped them both in hiding. However, both were tracked down and mistreated again in August 1974; Zeroual died as a result. Serfaty and four other comrades were sentenced to life imprisonment in October 1974. The reason for detention was "conspiracy against the security of the state". He spent the next seventeen years in prison in Kénitra . There Serfaty was able to get married in 1986 through the mediation of Danielle Mitterrand , his supporter and editor of his writings.

Exile and return to Morocco

Serfaty was released from prison in September 1991 but was immediately banished from Morocco. His citizenship was revoked because his father was a Brazilian citizen. The Serfaty couple found asylum in France, where Abraham taught at the Université de Paris-VIII from 1992 to 1995 on topics including: Identities and democracy in the Arab world .

Two months after the death of the Moroccan King Hassan II , Serfaty was able to return to Morocco with his wife. The government under Mohammed VI. provided them with a house in Mohammedia and granted them a monthly pension. At the same time, he was appointed to the supervisory board of the petroleum research and production authority (ONAREP). This official position did not prevent Serfaty from criticizing the domestic politics of Morocco, which in one case even led to the resignation of Prime Minister Abderrahmane Yousoufi in December 2000.

Publications

  • 2002: updated new edition: together with Christine Daure-Serfaty ; La memoire de l'autre. Tarik Éditions, Casablanca, ISBN 9954-419-00-4 .
  • 2001: together with Mikhaël Elbaz : L'insoumis: Juifs, Marocains et rebelles. Éditions Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, ISBN 2-220-04724-5 .
  • 1998: Le Maroc du noir au gris. Éditions Syllepse, ISBN 2-907993-89-5 .
  • 1993: La Mémoire de l'autre , Stock.
  • 1992: Dans les Prisons du Roi. Écrits de Kénitra sur le Maroc. Éditions Messidor, Paris, ISBN 2-209-06640-9 .
  • 1992: Écrits de prison sur la Palestine. Éditions Arcantère, ISBN 2-86829-059-0 .
  • 1977: Lutte anti-sioniste et Révolution Arabe - Esai sur le judaïsme marocain et le sionisme. Editions Quatre-Vents

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Died: Abraham Serfaty. In: Der Spiegel . 47/2010.
personal data
SURNAME Serfaty, Abraham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Moroccan-Jewish critic of the regime and political prisoner
DATE OF BIRTH 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Casablanca , Morocco
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 2010
Place of death Marrakech , Morocco