[COLUMNIST] The Syria Revolution and its implications for the Palestinians’ struggle for freedom

SYRIA is now free from Assad’s regime, which was well known for its cruel and despotic nature. Millions of Syrians are rejoicing, regardless of religion, because they are now no longer worried about being subjected to persecution by a regime that has, for decades, been merciless against dissent.

In 1982, Hafiz AlAssad, the father of Bashar Al Assad, massacred the inhabitants of the city of Hama in response to the uprising there, killing an estimated forty thousand people. The brutalization of the Syrian people was worse following the aftermath of the Arab Spring of 2011 when Syrians, inspired by the successful revolutions against despotic rulers in other Arab countries such as Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, also challenged Bashar Assad’s regime. The regime responded with deadlier measures, killing hundreds of thousands and jailing thousands of others. Millions decided to leave Syria to save their lives. According to one estimate, over the decades of its rule, the Assad regime killed 800,000 Syrians and displaced 13 million others.

Fortunately for the Syrian people, Bashar Assad and his family have now left Syria. Millions of Syrians whom he displaced are now returning to Syria after years of being in exile. They are going back to their homes and villages, no longer in fear of being arrested or killed by the regime. But for many, the immediate task is to look for lost relatives who may have been killed or jailed by Assad, especially at the infamous Sednaya prison, known as a human slaughterhouse, where thousands of Syrians were imprisoned and tortured to death. According to some reports, the Assad regime imprisoned and tortured to death around 50,000 people between 2011 and 2013 alone. Since then, no one knows how many thousand others suffered the same fate.

Palestinian refugees in Syria were also detained and tortured by Assad, including members of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups, such as Abu Jafar Al Jaloudi, the head of Qassam Brigades in Syria. The regime tortured to death of 4000 Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk and Tadamon. In other words, Assad was never a friend of Palestinians. So, the liberation of Syria is also a liberation for the oppressed Palestinians. No wonder Hamas and Islamic Jihad recently issued statements praising and supporting the revolution. Palestinians also celebrated in the ruined streets of Gaza and handed out sweets. A survey showed that 83% of Palestinians support the uprising against Assad. In fact, among the first things that the HTS fighters did after defeating Assad was to free the Palestinian prisoners, including Hamas members, who were languishing in the Syrian prisons.

Syrians have a close religious and cultural relationship with Palestinians. Syria and Palestine were part of a geographical area called `Bilad AsShams’ or the Land of Shams. Many Syrians consider the Zionist colonization of Palestine to be a colonization of part of their land, and many Palestinians believe the liberation of Syria to be a liberation of their land. So, people from both Syria and Palestine yearn for a future where the whole region will be free from foreign occupation.

The collapse of the Assad regime was very fast simply because he had no support among most Syrians, who were mostly Sunnis and who hated the domination of their land by the Alawites, whom many consider to be religious deviants. Many Syrian soldiers who were serving him were forcibly conscripted. Those who refused to obey orders to kill fellow Syrians were imprisoned.

In reality, Assad would have been defeated by the Syrian people in 2015 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. He could only survive with help from Russia and Iran. The Russians used their fighter jets to bomb rebel strongholds whilst Iran sent in armed militias to fight against the rebels. Iran was worried that Syria would fall into the hands of the Sunnis, thereby undermining Shiite control of the area and curtailing their supply routes to Hezbollah, a Shiite group and Iranian proxy in Lebanon.

However, both Russia and Iran are no longer able to give the same amount of support to Assad because their military capabilities have been weakened by their wars. The Russians are engaged in a very costly war in Ukraine, whilst Iranian proxy Hezbollah has been severely weakened by their recent war with Israel.

Moreover, Syria under Assad was experiencing severe economic hardships. Many of the soldiers in the Syrian army were not receiving their pay and, therefore, had no motivation to fight against the rebels. They lost faith in President Assad and felt that he was not going to ensure their welfare. They probably were informed that Assad had left the country, which would have severely undermined their morale. A battalion of the Syrian army reportedly moved to Iraq to avoid confronting the HTS fighters. Those were some of the reasons why the collapse of the Assad regime was so swift this time around and with minimal bloodshed. What happened in Syria in this aspect is almost the same as what previously happened in Afghanistan.

The worst mistake one can make is to accuse the Syrian people of being in cahoot with Israel since the Zionists had no role whatsoever in the fall of Assad. All this while, both Israel and the US preferred Assad to remain in power, but in a weakened state, unable ever to be a serious threat to the US. Bashar Assad had never attacked Israel anyway, even though Israel bombed his country numerous times. Assad was so weak that at one point, he offered to the US to betray Hamas and never to make any attempt to reclaim the Golan Heights in return for financial assistance. So Israel and the US were happy to let Assad remain as president of Syria. After all, despite Israel bombing Hezbollah positions in Syria, the Syrian army never fired a single missile or rocket towards Israel. Israeli military leaders acknowledged that they saw Assad as someone they could negotiate with, in fact, an ally that could help stop the rise of military groups in Syria that could potentially be a threat to Israel. Assad also knew that Israel would never target him in their bombing. Israel only targets Iranian and Hezbollah positions in Syria.

However, the American and Israeli plans for Syria went awry when Assad decided that it was safer for him to leave Syria with his family before the Syrian people managed to catch him. Moreover, he did not want to suffer the same fate as Gaddafi, who his people eventually killed.

The response from Israel upon the collapse of the Assad regime proved that Israel was never in cahoot with HTS and considers them to be a threat to them. Israel carried out almost 500 airstrikes in less than 48 hours on Syria’s military targets, including missile installations, military airbases and naval installations. Israel wanted to be sure that the new rulers of Syria were deprived of any military capability to attack it. These military installations were not bombed by Israel earlier when Assad was in power because Israel knew that Assad would never attack Israel.

To be sure, Israel did finance one small group of around 400 fighters called Fursan al Joulan. But their task was not to fight Assad but rather to protect the Golan Heights from Iranian militias. Now that Assad is gone, Israel is worried at the possibility that Sunni Arabs will once again unite to liberate all Arab lands.

In conclusion, despite the presence of many factions, the revolution in Syria is popular among the people of Syria, even though there are many factions among them. The main factor is the hatred of the Syrian people toward the Assad regime due to its inhumane treatment of the Syrian people. That cruelty was responsible for the exodus of millions of Syrians out of their country to become refugees in neighbouring countries and around the world. It is a mistake and an insult to the Syrian people, especially to the hundreds of thousands who gave their lives for the revolution, to say that Israel and America were behind the revolution.

Most certainly, America, Israel and other Western nations will try to gain influence in post-revolution Syria to ensure their interests are preserved. However, it remains to be seen whether their attempts will succeed.

The question of when will the new government of Syria be engaged in efforts to liberate Palestine from the clutches of the Zionists is challenging to predict. Syrian people are tired of the internal conflicts. Understandably, they are more focused on establishing political and economic stability. However, the jubilation among Palestinians and messages of support from Hamas and other Palestinian groups is an indication that most Palestinians are very optimistic that the revolution in Syria is a positive development that will help their cause in the long run.

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Prof Nazari Ismail is the Director at Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies

** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.

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