Mordechai Touito, the son of Saida-Prosper and Zuza-Louisa, was born in Tunis, Tunisia, on 25th June 1924. After completing school at the Alliance School he worked at sewing shoes and bags. From a young age he developed an interest in Zionist activities that needed to express itself in practical action. He marched at the head of the youth who stood in defense of the Jewish Quarter at the time of Arab rioting and massacres.
During the Nazi occupation he was arrested as the head of the demonstrators and imprisoned in a prison camp and forced into hard labor. In this labor camp he also put his soul into the Zionist ideal.
Later, in 1948, whilst still in Tunis, he was involved in the recruitment of volunteers to help assist in the struggle of the Jews, and he himself was mobilized into the Machal framework, trained in a preparation camp in France for six months, and arrived in Eretz Yisrael on the ship “Kedmah” in May 1948. He was immediately recruited into the IDF and moved from Caesarea to Beersheva to join the French Commando company of the 9th Battalion Palmach Hanegev. He dreamed of bringing the Jewish residents of Tunis to this land.
He participated in the capture of Beersheva where he was wounded in the hand. After recovering, he was sent to the battles at Bir Asluj. While being photographed there, he removed the bandages from his hands so that his parents wouldn’t worry about him.
When his commander was looking for a volunteer to break the contact between Bir Asluj and the enemy headquarters, he was surprised to find that Mordechai had already volunteered.
Mordechai Touito, IDF No: 75416, fell from one of the last enemy bullets fired in the battles of Bir Asluj on 26th December 1948.
His parents arrived in Israel three days after his death on the day he was buried at the Kibbutz Revivim cemetery.
On 15th May 1952 his body was re-interred at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
Source: Translated from the Yizkor website by Joe Woolf.