🇲🇦 Abraham Serfaty: Morocco's Mandela | Al Jazeera World

Filmmaker: Mostafa Bouazzaoui
For almost his whole political career, Abraham Serfaty was a thorn on the side of authorities in Rabat, both during the days of French rule and later, under the reign of King Hassan II.
Described by his closest supporters as "the Moroccan Mandela", Serfaty endured 17 years of imprisonment, torture and 13 years of exile for his political views, including his opposition to Morocco's position on Western Sahara.
Part of the minority Jewish population in Morocco, he never embraced Zionism. After the 1967 war, he distanced himself from Israel and became a vocal advocate for the Palestinian resistance movement, a burning issue that dominated discussion on Arab streets at the time.
Serfaty once famously told the media: "Conveying the image of a democratic Israel is a fantasy. You cannot be a democrat while oppressing another people. Zionism goes against democracy. I was 10 in 1936, when my father told me at the synagogue that 'Zionism goes against our religion.'"
His unique identity allowed him to break taboos and inspire others, according to those who met him. "He established a new concept of the Arab Jew who didn't renounce any element of his origins as a Moroccan and an Arab Jew," explains university teacher Michelle Fay. "One can be a hundred percent Jewish and a hundred percent anti-Zionist."
Together with Abdellatif Laabi, Serfaty developed an artistic journal called "Souffles", meaning "Breaths". Printed in Arabic and French, it was a creative space for political expression that its authors felt had been silenced for so long by politicians and the monarchy.
"It gave a new orientation to both journalism and creativity in an era that was giving birth to new ideas in Morocco, Palestine and the world," says Noureddine Saoudi, a former prisoner and teacher.
As a champion of universal human rights and democratic principles, Serfaty sits alongside the likes of Che Guevara, Martin Luther King and Patrice Lumumba. A product of his environment, he belonged to the freethinking era of the 1960s and 70s; and of the post-independence period when many Arab countries were freed from colonial rule. There was a global movement to end authoritarian rule, war, poverty, racism and the nuclear threat in which primarily young people inspired by left-wing Marxist ideology, saw spreading political awareness as a duty.
It's ironical, on reflection, that several figures who wrestled their countries away from foreign influence later used oppressive styles of government against their own people - like Hafez al-Assad in Syria, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.
Years after Abraham Serfaty's death in 2010, the Arab Middle East is still grappling with many of the major issues that preoccupied him - searching for forms of government acceptable to people and politicians, free from outside influence, without media restrictions or powerful instruments of state.
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[@dissdad8744]

Thanks Al Jazeera for allowing us to learn about the life of this man who fought against injustice and repression. Speaking of Mandela: Abraham Serfaty looks a bit like the South African human rights lawyer George Bizos who also became Mandelas lawyer.

[@salma_8218]

this documentary is way too underrated.

[@sihamenouski5495]

للاسف هو من باع بلده المغرب

[@mohamedelmarzouki4737]

اذا كان مانديلا المغرب فمن تكون مارغريدا السرفاتي عشيقة موسولوني؟

[@berga_mote]

A quand la version sous-titrée en français ? Dommage que les sous-titres automatiques soient désactivés sur cette vidéo, puisqu'elle est en anglais, donc facilement traduisible par génération automatique de sous-titres. Cependant, merci pour le bon résumé en français.

[@allday6096]

why should you get a french version, you colonialist scum. learn english

[@wakeupmrye6908]

looks more like einstein

[@benmesoudbentaleb4324]

Oui c'est vrai, moi aussi j'ai remarqué que ce grand MAROCAIN-JUIF est étai identique à INCHETAEIN.. سبحان الله يخلق من الشبه أربعين.

[@Adamrhll]

anyone have an idea about that comic and drawings where they came from ? and thanks comrades !!

[@HamadaElMnsour]

God, that narrator is a real turn off!

[@iloveass2289]

and we see the same things happening today...nothing has changed

[@tarikabaraka2251]

Abraham Serfaty fue un político marroquí, una de las principales figuras de la oposición al régimen de Hasan II y durante algunos años decano de los presos políticos de este país magrebí y de toda África.

[@ouardlebouardleb6234]

Hat's off to this great unsubdued militant

[@samuelgoldman7812]

J’ai la chance de le rencontrer en personne et lui serrer la main, C était un beau jour que je n’oublierais jamais! He is in much better place!