Hassan II (Arabic: الحسن الثاني, romanized: al-Hasan aṯ-ṯānī; 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was the second King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999.

He was a member of the 'Alawi dynasty, who claim to be direct descendants from the Prophet Muhammad. The dynasty ruled the country since the mid 17th century, he was the eldest son of Sultan Mohammed V, and his second wife, Lalla Abla bint Tahar. He was the first commander-in-chief of the Royal Armed Forces and was named crown prince in 1957. He was enthroned as king in 1961 following his father's death. Hassan's reign was marked by the start of the Western Sahara conflict and the Sand War, he was also the target of two failed coup d'états. Hassan's conservative rule reportedly strengthened the 'Alawi dynasty's rule over Morocco. He was accused of authoritarian practices and civil rights abuses, particularly during the Years of Lead, a truth commission was set up after his death to investigate allegations of human rights violations during his reign.

Early life

Moulay al-Hassan bin Mohammed bin Yusef al-Alawi was born on July 9, 1929, at the Dar al-Makhzen in Rabat during the French Protectorate of Morocco as the eldest son to Sultan Mohammed V and his 2nd wife, Lalla Abla bint Tahar, as a member of the 'Alawi dynasty.

Hassan first studied Islamic sciences at the Dar al-Makhzen in Fez, he later went to the Royal College in Rabat, where instruction was in Arabic and French and a class was created for him, Mehdi Ben Barka was reportedly his teacher at the Royal College. Moulay Hassan earned a law diploma from the University of Bordeaux before serving in the French Navy on board the Jeanne d'Arc cruiser.

  Prince Hassan at 13 years old, second from left in the back row, photographed behind Sultan Muhammad V, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Casablanca Conference of 1943.

In 1943, a 12-year-old Hassan attended the Casablanca Conference at the Anfa Hotel along with his father, Mohammed V, where he met U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Charles de Gaulle. 

In 1947, Moulay Hassan participated in his father, Sultan Mohammed V's speech in Tanger (then part of the Tangier International Zone). In the speech, Sultan Mohammed wished for the French Protectorate of Morocco, the Spanish protectorate of Morocco and the Tangier International Zone to be unified into one nation. The speech quickly became a reference for Moroccan nationalists and anti-colonial movements, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Former Resistance Fighters and Members of the Army of Liberation, the speech was a "a turning point in [Morocco's] march for independence and its fight for the solemn claim of its independence, the recovery of its sovereignty and the consecration of the unity of the nation". Hassan later claimed that he had "profound resentment" towards the protectorate and that he felt "deep humiliation" from French colonialism, despite paying hommage to Hubert Lyautey, the first resident-general of the French protectorate, he was highly critical of Lyautey's successors, noting their "stubborn stupidity" and "total insensitivity".

He was forced into exile by French authorities on August 20, 1953, along with his family and father, Sultan Mohammed V, they were deported to Zonza, Corsica. Their deportation caused protests and further fueled the anti-colonial movement. They moved to the city of L'Île-Rousse and were living in the Napoléon Bonaparte hotel for five months before being transferred to Antsirabe, Madagascar in January 1954. Prince Hassan acted as his father's political advisor during the exile. They later returned from exile on November 16, 1955.

Prince Hassan participated in the February 1956 negotiations for Morocco's independence with his father, who later appointed him Commander in Chief of the newly founded Royal Armed Forces in April 1956. In the unrest of the same year, he led army contingents to victory after defeating rebel militias during the Rif revolt, it was during his tenure as Commander in Chief where he met General Mohamed Oufkir, who was later suspected of attempting to kill Hassan during a failed coup d'état. After Mohammed V changed the title of the Moroccan sovereign from Sultan to King in 1957, Hassan was proclaimed Crown Prince on 9 July 1957. Hassan was named prime minister in 1961, after his father's death from heart failure following minor surgery, Hassan was enthroned on February 26, 1961, and became the King of Morocco.

Reign

Domestic reforms

In 1962, Hassan II and his aides wrote the Kingdom of Morocco's first constitution, defining the kingdom as a social and democratic constitutional monarchy, made Islam the state religion, gave the king, whose person was defined as "inviolable and sacred", the title of Amir al-Mu'minin and "supreme representative of the nation". The constitution also reaffirmed Morocco's choice of a multi-party political system, the only one in the Maghreb at that time. The constitution provoked strong political protest from the UNFP and the Istiqlal and other leftist parties that formed the opposition at the time.

In June 1965, in the aftermath of prior riots, Hassan dissolved the Parliament and suspended the constitution of 1962, declaring a state of exception that would last more than five years, he ruled Morocco directly, however, he did not completely abolish the mechanisms of parliamentary democracy.  An alleged report from the U.S. Secretary of State claimed that, during this period, "Hassan [appeared] obsessed with the preservation of his power rather than with its application toward the resolution of Morocco's multiplying domestic problems."

In 1990, following riots in Fez, Hassan set up the Consultative Human Rights Council in 1990 to look into allegations of abuse by the State. In 1991, he pardoned 2000 prisoners, including political prisoners and people held in secret prisons in Tazmamart.

Attempted coup d'états

In the early 1970s, King Hassan survived two assassination attempts. The first, on 10 July 1971, was a coup d'état attempt allegedly supported by Libya, organized by General Mohamed Medbouh and Colonel M'hamed Ababou and carried out by cadets during a diplomatic function at the King's summer palace in Rabat during his forty-second birthday party. Important guests, including the Belgian Ambassador Marcel Dupret, were placed under house arrest, and the King himself was taken to a small pavilion.

Rabat's main radio station was taken over by the rebels and broadcast propaganda stating that the King had been murdered and a republic founded. The coup ended the same day when royalist troops took over the palace in combat against the rebels. It was subsequently claimed by the Moroccan authorities that the young cadets had been misled by senior officers into thinking that they were acting to protect the king.

On 16 August 1972, during a second attempt, four F-5 military jets from the Royal Moroccan Air Force fired upon the King's Boeing 727 while he was traveling back to Rabat from France, many bullets hit the fuselage but they failed to bring the plane down.  Allegedly, the King himself hurried to the cockpit, took control of the radio, and shouted: "Stop firing you fools, the Tyrant is dead!" Eight people were killed when the jets strafed the awaiting reception dignitaries. General Mohamed Oufkir, Morocco's defense minister, was the man behind the coup and was officially declared to have committed suicide after the attack. His body, however, was found with several bullet wounds.

Foreign policy

In the Cold War era, Hassan II allied Morocco with the West generally, and with the United States in particular, after his death, The New York Times called him "a monarch oriented to the west". There were close and continuing ties between Hassan II's government and the CIA, who helped to reorganize Morocco's security forces in 1960. During Hassan's tenure as prime minister, Morocco controversially accepted Soviet military aid and made overtures towards Moscow. During an interview, Hassan stated that "as an Islamic people, [Morocco has] the right to practice bigamy. We can wed East and West and be faithful to both".

Hassan II also covertly cooperated with Israel. In Operation Yachin, he allowed over 97,000 Moroccan Jews to be migrated to Israel from 1961 to 1964. In an arrangement financed by the American Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Hassan II was paid a sum of $500,000 plus $100 for each of the first 50,000 Moroccan Jews to be migrated to Israel, and $250 for each Jewish emigrant thereafter.

According to Shlomo Gazit of Israeli intelligence, Hassan II invited Mossad and Shin Bet agents to bug the Casablanca hotel where the Arab League Summit of September 1965 would be held to record the conversations of the Arab leaders. This information was instrumental in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War. According to Ronen Bergman, Mossad then supplied information leading to Mehdi Ben Barka's capture and assassination in October.

Hassan II sent "token contingents to support the Arab side" in both the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

During Hassan II's reign, Morocco recovered the Spanish-controlled area of Ifni in 1969, and militarily seized two-thirds of Spanish Sahara through the "Green March" in 1975. The latter issue continues to dominate Moroccan foreign policy to this day. Relations with Algeria have deteriorated sharply due to the Western Sahara affair, as well as due to Moroccan claims on Algerian territory (Tindouf and Bechar), which unleashed the brief 1963 Sand War. Relations with Mauritania were tense too, as Morocco only recognized it as a sovereign country in 1969, nearly a decade after Mauritania's independence, because of Moroccan claims on the country (see Great Morocco). In 1985, Hassan II suspended Morocco's membership of the Organization of African Unity and entered into conflict with Burkinabe President Thomas Sankara because of his decision to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Economy

Economically, Hassan II adopted a market-based economy, where agriculture, tourism, and phosphates mining industries played a major role. On 3 March 1973, Hassan II announced a "Moroccanization" policy (French: Marocanisation), in which state-held assets, agricultural lands, and businesses that were more than 50 percent foreign-owned—and especially French-owned—were transferred to political loyalists and high-ranking military officers. The "Moroccanization" of the economy affected thousands of businesses and the proportion of industrial businesses in Morocco that were Moroccan-owned immediately increased from 18% to 55%.  2/3 of the wealth of the "Moroccanized" economy was concentrated in 36 Moroccan families.

Human rights

Hassan's reign was infamous for a poor human rights record labelled as "appalling" by the BBC. It was however, at its worst during the period from the 1960s to the late 1980s, which was labelled as the "years of lead" and saw thousands of dissidents jailed, killed, exiled or forcibly disappeared. During this time, Morocco was one of the most repressive and undemocratic nations in the world. However, Morocco has been labelled as "partly free" by Freedom House, except in 1992 and 2014 when the country was labelled "Not free" in those years respectively. The country would only become more democratic by the early 1990s amid strong international pressure and condemnation over the nation's human rights record. Due to the strong rebuke from other nations and human rights groups, and also because of the realistic threat of international isolation, Hassan II would then gradually democratize the nation over time. Since then, Morocco's human rights record has improved modestly, and improved significantly following the death of Hassan II.

Hassan II imprisoned many members of the National Union of Popular Forces and sentenced some party leaders, including Mehdi Ben Barka, to death. Student protests that took place 21 March 1965 in Casablanca, and devolved into general riots the following day; their violent repression caused many casualties. In the aftermath, on 26 March, Hassan II gave a speech that he concluded with: "There is no greater danger to a country than a so-called intellectual; it would have been better if you had all been illiterate."

In October 1965, Mehdi Ben Barka—the main political opponent of Hassan II—was kidnapped and disappeared in Paris. In Rise and Kill First, Ronen Bergman points to cooperation between the Moroccan authorities and Mossad in locating Ben Barka.

Failed negotiations over borders between Hassan II and Algeria's newly elected president Ahmed Ben Bella led to the 1963 Sand War.

Death

On July 23, 1999, at 16:30 (GMT), Hassan II was pronounced dead from a myocardial infarction by the CHU Ibn Sina Hospital in Rabat, he was hospitalized earlier that day for acute interstitial pneumonitis, he was 70 years old.  A national funeral service was held for him in Rabat, with over 40 heads of state in attendance, most notably Bill Clinton, Jacques Chirac, Yasser Arafat, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Abdullah II of Jordan, Ehud Barak, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Hosni Moubarak, Juan Carlos I, Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Hafez al-Assad and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

He was buried in the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. The wooden coffin of Hassan II, carried by King Mohammed VI, his brother Prince Moulay Rachid and his cousin Moulay Hicham, was covered with a red cloth, in which the Shahada, an Islamic testimony of faith, is inscribed in golden writing.

Honors and decorations

National orders:

•  Grand Master of the Order of Muhammad
•  Grand Master of the Order of the Throne
•  Grand Master of the Order of the Independence
•  Grand Master of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite
•  Grand Master of the Order of Fidelity
•  Grand Master of the Order of Military Merit
•  Grand Master of the National Order of Merit
•  Grand Master of the National Order of Prosperity

Foreign orders:

•  Grand Star of the Order of Merit of the Austrian Republic
•  Grand Collar of the Order of al-Khalifa of Bahrain
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold of Belgium
•  Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia
•  Knight of the Order of the Elephant of Denmark
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of the Nile of Egypt
•  Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour of France
•  Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
•  Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece
•  Grand Collar of the Order of Pahlavi of Iran
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of the Two Rivers of Iraq
•  Knight Grand Cross with Collar of Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
•  Collar of the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali of Jordan
•  Collar of the Order of Mubarak the Great of Kuwait
•  Extraordinary Grade of the Order of Merit of Lebanon
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of Idris I of Libya
•  Grand Cross of the National Order of Mali of Mali
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of National Merit of Mauritania
•  Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
•  Special Class of the Order of Oman
•  Grand Cross of the Order of Pakistan, First Class
•  Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry of Portugal
•  Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword of Portugal
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of the Independence of Qatar
•  Order of Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia, 1st Class
•  Collar of Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise of Spain
•  Collar of the Order of Charles III of Spain
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit of Sudan
•  Wissam of the Order of Oumayid of Syria
•  Grand Cordon of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia
•  Grand Collar of the Order of the Seventh of November of Tunisia
•  Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
•  Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
•  Collar of the Order of Etihad (Order of the Federation)
•  Yugoslav Great Star