Support for regime?

In this post I will attempt to show how the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad has managed to gain so much support over the past couple of years, just bare with me for a couple of introductory paragraphs!

Social media has played a major role in the uprisings that have taken place across the Middle East and the North Africa region. It is without any doubt that such social media has been the instigator for people to continue their struggle; in the absence of such media those uprisings would have most probably ended in the favor of ruling regimes.

Not only are those social media websites driving and assisting people in their struggles against corrupt governments especially when acting as alternative sources of news and information, but more recently they are showing the consensus and the opinions of majorities in certain countries. For example, on facebook there is a new application that allows individuals to ask questions where other facebook users may select an answer from a number of different answers. One such question that came around a couple of days ago was:

هل انت مع توقيع سوريا لاتفاقية سلام مع اسرائيل؟؟

Do you think Syria should sign a peace treaty with Israel?

Having just checked the results so far those that said YES are 197 whereas those that said NO are 6003.

So how can this be related to the support the current regime gets from most of Syrians?

When it came to foreign policy the Syrian regime has stuck to its core principles of right to resist, righteousness of resistance movements, standing against imperialism and foreign intervention in the middle east region, and most importantly not accepting a peace treaty with Israel. Of course, those aren't simple issues and are discussed further below.

1) Right to Resist and Righteousness of resistance movements:

The Syrian regime has willingly and sometimes out of necessity, supported resistance movements in the region. As we all know they support Hizbullah of Lebanon, Hamas of Palestine and other Palestinian factions including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and for a short while openly supported Iraqi resistance and then covertly supported that resistance after 2004-2005.

When government officials were interviewed by any news outlet and were asked about resistance movements in the middle east, the made it clear that the regime supports any righteous resistance that was fighting any oppressive regime wherever it may be.

Now any Syrian, in fact any person in the world would agree to that and in the eyes of most Syrians, any movement that is fighting the Zionists state is and will always be seen as a righteous movement fighting a righteous cause. However some skeptical Syrians would ask, how come we don't have any resistance on our borders? why isn't our regime, that supports resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine not conducting its own resistance to the occupation of the Golan Heights. And that's the point the regime failed to address.

2) Imperialism and Foreign Intervention: Not much needs to be discussed except that the regime in Syria opposed any sort of foreign intervention in the middle east most notably the invasion of Iraq even though ties between the two countries haven't been good since the Iraq-Iran war.

3) Peace with Zionist Israel:
The policy that has been carried out by the current regime has been similar to that of Hafez Al Assad. His policy was that no peace will be signed with Israel unless it was a comprehensive peace agreement between Zionist Israel and Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, while at the same time maintaining full rights including return of all occupied lands up until 1967, sovereignty over all the returned lands and other rights related to Palestine.
Having taken the same stance by Bashar Al Assad very little people were against it. However indirect talks that were reveled to the public prior to the 2008 aggression on Gaza exhibited the flexibility of the Syrian regime towards this policy. Whereby the regime defended the indirect talks by pointing out the peace treaties signed between Egypt, Jordan and Israel and justified it by saying it was all part of the comprehensive peace process and that the regime is pragmatic (it does what it can given the circumstances). The indirect peace talks (moderated by Turkey) ended after the aggression on Gaza, as a sign of protest to that aggression.

Those are the three principle foreign policies that solidified the relationship between the people and the regime. There are however other major events that cemented that relationship even further which include:

- US sanctions on Syria
- Assassination of Rafik Harriri and the International Tribunal
- Collaboration of previous Egyptian regime and Saudi Arabia with other countries to topple Syrian Regime.
- Taking in refugees from both Iraq and Lebanon
- Anti Syrian sentiment in Lebanon

(The first Three events contributed heavily to the justification by the regime in current events for the presence of a conspiracy against Syrian regime and its people)

Having considered the foreign policies mentioned above and other events we can clearly see why the majority of Syrians stand by the current regime. When it comes to domestic policies, that is where most of us will find 180 degree shift of opinion. Very few Syrians will be against the foreign policies that were upheld by the previous regime (such questions on facebook reflect this where the current numbers to the earlier mentioned question is at 6950 for NO and 229 for YES - only 6 hours later), believing that the events currently happening in Syria are a continuation of that conspiracy against the Syrian regime by foreign countries and and other entities (mainly Lebanese parties and other figures in the Gulf region).

I do believe that foreign intervention has a minor role in what is happening however the major effects that caused the current uprising happening now in Syria is a result of failed domestic policies, injustice by the regime towards the people and corruption. Will be hopefully discussed later.

Al Baida Village Response

This is the video done in response to those that have believed the new minister that said that the earlier video in Al Baida village that showed security forces humiliating the men of the village, was actually an old video in Kurdistan where the Peshmerga detained Arabs and did what everyone saw in the video.

Not so Mighty

Long has been the myth of the mighty security/intelligence forces (or mukhabarat) in Syria, that people dare not say the names of those security apparatus in public or even in phone conversations. There are 13 different security apparatus in Syria each dealing with different aspects of everyday life of the people. The most notorious of those is the Air force intelligence which works domestically as well as overseas. A security clearance is required for virtually everything anyone wants to do, whether it was to get married, start a business, travel, eat, breath... no I'm just kidding, you don't need a clearance for that.

After what has happened in the past couple of weeks from what some may call a revolution -whereas I like to call it anti-government demonstrations- the government has decided to loosen up a bit by removing security clearance procedures for many of the activities.

But honestly, this post is not about the reducing of procedures by these security/intelligence forces. Its about the following (it is related to the security/intelligence in Syria though).

Anonymous, is a person I know who works two jobs, in the morning he goes to the Governorate of Damascus where he works in the Directorate of waterways. His second job is working at the place I work in.  A couple of days ago, when there was apparently a football game taking place at the Abbasiyeen stadium, workers at the Directorate of waterways were called for an emergency. They all gathered at the Directorate, each was given a baton and were then sent to the stadium to make sure that if some people, all of a sudden, decided to protest, there would be security present to beat them up and disperse them. According to Anonymous, he said nothing happened that night and they were all sent home.

This according to anonymous has been happening regularly. Two days ago when there was a call for a demonstration in the Abbasiyeen Square, government employees were also sent to face the protesters. Anonymous told his employer that he will not go and opted to go on an inspection round to Al Assi river. He said he would never beat a fellow Syrian, and would rather be hit himself instead if put in that position.

This shows how thin the security forces have been running recently. Given that their power is mostly centralized in Damascus it seems they have been poorly distributed across the country. According to another person I have talked to, he tells me that his brother in-law who works for one of the mukhabarat branches, has been in Dera'a for weeks and that last time they talked he was heading to one of the cities in the North, could be Banyas or Homs, he tells me they still haven't heard anything from him.
This also makes it clearer what and why, what is known as "people's committees" have been created in some cities in Syria like Lattakia, Banyas, Dera'a, Homs and other areas where protests exploded in recent weeks.

And this also slightly ridicules the notion being put forth by the ever so failing Syrian media (namely the Syrian T.V. and the Al Doniya TV station) which attempted to ridicule and deny the videos of security forces beating up civilians with the most absurd and farcical of excuses. Like for example, in their attempts of delegitimizing the video where armed security forces had men from the village of Al Baida on the floor with their hands cuffed behind their backs while the security men were stomping on their heads; Al Doniya suggested that one of the security forces looked too young to be part of the security forces given that anyone wanting to join the security/intelligence must be 18 or over, hence deeming the video fabricated.

It was not until recently that the media has been slightly taking a different narrative. They nearly stopped using outlandish excuses for the failure of security forces in dealing with what has been happening, and they tuned down their attack on those that have been protesting for their rights as citizens in a country ruled by the law and by institutions rather than individuals as most claim. Furthermore, with the above in mind, it does very much seem that the security/intelligence apparatus in this country is not as mighty as one may think, it is still however not a good idea to be caught by them, you will most definitely not have a good time where ever they may take you to.

With yesterdays directions given by Bashar Al Assad, it will be interesting to see how things will unravel in the coming week and not weeks. I'll leave me impression on yesterdays 'Lecture' by the president to the new government for another post.

رسالة مفتوحة إلى الرئيس بشار الأسد - غياث المدهون

سيادة الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد: اسمي غياث المدهون، وأنا شاعر وصحافي فلسطيني من قطاع غزة، ولدت في مخيم اليرموك في سورية عام 1979 لأب فلسطيني وأم سورية، وعشت ونشأت ودرست في سورية، ثم غادرتها وأنا أحاول منذ سنتين الحصول على اللجوء في السويد.
كلنا نعرف أن اللاجئين الفلسطينيين في سورية ' الفلسطينيين السوريين كما يطلق عليهم' والذين يقارب عددهم 600 ألف لاجئ يتمتعون بكافة الحقوق التي يتمتع بها المواطنون السوريون من حق الإقامة والتنقل في الأراضي السورية إلى حق العودة إلى سورية دون تأشيرة دخول، إلى حق العمل في الوظائف الحكومية والخاصة، إلى حق التملك وهو مماثل لحقوق التملك بالنسبة للسوريين باستثناء تملك المنازل ' يسمح بعقار واحد بالنسبة للفلسطينيين'، بالإضافة إلى أنهم يحصلون على كافة الأوراق والوثائق الثبوتية التي يحصل عليها المواطنون السوريون من جوازات السفر الصادرة عن دائرة الهجرة والجوازات السورية، إلى الهويات الشخصية التي تخولهم بالتعريف عن أنفسهم، إلى حصولهم على دفتر عائلة لتسجيل الزوجة والأبناء... الخ، وباستثناء حق الترشح لانتخابات مجلس الشعب السوري أو لانتخابات الرئاسة أو حق الاقتراع في الانتخابات وهي من حق المواطنين السوريين فقط فإنهم لا ينتقص من حقوقهم المشروعة أي حق، بل إن سورية أصبحت مضرب مثلٍ للتعامل العادل مع اللاجئين الفلسطينيين بالمقارنة مع الدول العربية الأخرى.
وبالكفة المقابلة فإن على اللاجئين الفلسطينيين تأدية نفس الواجبات التي يؤديها المواطن السوري بلا استثناء بما فيها خدمة العلم في جيش التحرير الفلسطيني التابع للقوات المسلحة السورية ' الخدمة العسكرية الإلزامية' وتنطبق عليهم كافة القوانين التي تنطبق على السوريين، وهم يعيشون مع السوريين وبينهم، أسوةً بهم، لهم ما لهم وعليهم ما عليهم.
هذا ما منحته الحكومة السورية للاجئين الفلسطينيين الذين هجروا من مدنهم وقراهم إبان نكبة عام 1948 ولجؤوا إلى الأراضي السورية، وهذا الأمر ليس غريباً أو مستغرباً عن الشعب السوري الذي قدم الكثير من الدماء والشهداء لنصرة القضية الفلسطينية ولنصرة الشعب الفلسطيني في نضاله للتحرر بالإضافة للدعم المادي والمعنوي والسياسي حكومة وشعباً لفلسطين وللقضية الفلسطينية عدا عن إيمان الشعب السوري العميق بعدالة هذه القضية والذي لا يستطيع أحدٌ أن يخفيه.
سيادة الرئيس: هناك فئة صغيرة من الفلسطينيين لم ينتبه لهم أحد لصغر عددهم، وهم الفلسطينيون الذين هجروا من أرضهم إبان نكسة عام 1967، والذين وصلوا إلى سورية بعد هذه الحرب، أو الذين أتوا إليها من الأردن بعد أحداث أيلول الأسود عام 1970، ومنهم والدي الشاعر والصحافي راسم المدهون، فإنهم منسيون ولم يسمع بهم أحد، حتى في التقارير الصادرة عن الأمم المتحدة لا يوجد ذكر لهم، وهم محرومون من كافة الحقوق المدنية، فهم لا يملكون هويات للتعريف بأنفسهم، ولا جوازات سفر، ولا يحق لهم إصدار إقامة، أو تملك منزل، ولا يمكن لهم الحصول على وظيفة حكومية أو قرض، أو تسجيل اسمهم في جمعية سكنية، وليس لهم الحق بإصدار شهادة سوق للمركبات العمومية، وإذا استطاعوا مغادرة سورية بطريقة أو بأخرى فليس مسموحاً لهم العودة إليها، وغالبيتهم يعيشون ظروفاً لا يتمناها المرء لعدوه، منسيين ومهمشين، والذنب الوحيد الذي اقترفوه هو أن إسرائيل لم تحتل مدنهم في نكبة عام 1948، إنما احتلتها في نكسة عام 1967.
لقد كانت معاناتي ومعاناة عائلتي في سورية كبيرة، فلم يكن بإمكاننا الحصول على وظيفة حكومية، والوظائف الخاصة كانت ترفضنا لأن الأولوية للسوريين ومن بحكمهم 'أي الفلسطينيين السوريين'.
أما في السفر بين المدن فكان رجال الشرطة يطلبون هويتي حين أهم بركوب الحافلة، وحين كنت أخبرهم أنني لا أملك هوية لأنني فلسطيني كانوا يقولون لي أن الفلسطينيين يملكون هويات مؤقتة للاجئين، كنت أحاول أن أشرح لهم أننا لسنا فلسطينيين سوريين وأننا من قطاع غزة، وأنه من الغريب أن ترفض منح أحد المواطنين هويةً ثم تقوم بإيقافه لأنه لا يحملُ هوية ولكن دون فائدة، فمن النادر أن تجد شرطياً سمع بنا، وكانت تنتهي القضية في أهون الحالات بإنزالي من الحافلة وفي أسوئها فإن الاحتمالات مفتوحة. وكنت أخاف أن أمشي في الليل كي أتحاشى أن تطلب دورية شرطة أو أمن هويتي.
حصلت على أول جواز سفر لي قبل سنتين عن طريق البريد، لأنه لا توجد سفارة فلسطينية في سورية كباقي دول العالم، وهو جواز غير معترف به لأنه لا يحمل الرقم الوطني، وهذا الرقم الوطني لا تمنحه المخابرات الإسرائيلية إلا لمن ولدوا في الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة، وأنا ولدت في سورية.
أنا ولدت في سورية ولم أعرف غيرها، نصفي سوري لأن أمي مواطنة سورية، وفلسطيني لأن أبي فلسطيني، لم أرتكب أي ذنب، سوى أنني من قطاع غزة.
لقد هربت إلى السويد وطلبت اللجوء، ولكن عائلتي هي ومئات العائلات التي لجأت إلى سورية بعد النكسة ما زالت في سورية تعاني حرمانها من الحقوق المدنية دون أن يسمع بها أحد.
سيادة الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد، أكتب إليك هذه الرسالة لأن مواقفك تجاه القضية الفلسطينية والشعب الفلسطيني معروفة للجميع، ولا يستطيع أحد أن يجد مكاناً يتمتع به الفلسطينيون بحقوقهم مثل سورية، ولكن هناك فئة صغيرة تعاني منذ 43 سنة وأريد تسليط الضوء عليها، وكل ما أريده ويريده الفلسطينيون في مثل حالتي وحالة أهلي هو أن يعاملوا أسوةً بغالبية الفلسطينيين في سورية وهم على بعضهم لا يتجاوزون المئات، وكلي أمل وثقة بأنهم سيمنحون كافة حقوقهم بعد اطلاعك على قضيتهم.
 

ستوكهولم، السويد، آب (أغسطس) 2010

Are You Listening?

Although human conscience develops at a faster rate than, lets say, the change to the climate we still have to go through pain and atrocities before we can see the reality and the consequences of our actions. Human conscience is trapped and is only freed once the chains of tribalism, racism and nationalism that we have shackled our conscience with are broken.

Long Live Palestine

I literally spent the entire day yesterday watching Al Jazeera; Since I am off for two weeks now with nothing to do. I can’t say I was totally shocked with what happened yesterday regarding the brutal way the incident has been dealt with by a people that believe that they are “Gods Chosen People”, who I bet were thinking to themselves “who the hell are those that want to break this siege we have on Gaza? We will teach them a lesson!” This, my friends, is probably how the issue of the Aid Ships was discussed within the Zionist entities’ top political and military leadership and it can’t be something that is far fetched given the way the Zionist entity totally miscalculated the repercussions of its actions, as it did earlier in its assault on Gaza in 2008.

With its actions the Zionist entity from the first second lost the media war, public opinion across the world turned against it. Who can explain killing 20 people in international waters and then forcefully taking those ships (all this while in international waters) to Asdod? This act can only be explained in two words: Butchery and Piracy. On the other hand, while it seemed that world governments were angry with the savagery of the Zionists, calling ambassadors in more than one country (Sweden, Norway, Spain, Greece, etc) diplomatically Israel neither gained or lost anything (with the exception to Turkey) which can be symbolized with the inability of the UN to at least condemn the actions of the Tyrant entity of our day. Compared with what the UN came up with when poor Somali fishermen hijacked ships off the Somali coast in order to get some compensation for the apparent disposal of toxic waste off the Somali coast that destroyed the marine ecosystem in the area, the UN decided that those were pirates and the entire world sent warships to destroy this dangerous phenomenon!

The Zionist entity, or what is commonly referred to as Israel, believes that it doesn’t really matter what the entire world thinks, whether the entire world likes what it does or doesn’t, that as long as the US and other Western States, will continue to defend the Zionist cause blindly it will survive. The way “Israel” survives, is by keeping public opinion about the Israel in a mist; no one should really know what is going on, it is not important what the rogue “Jewish State” does because its people, i.e. the Jews, have been through alot; They’ve been through the holocaust. What is amazing is how on Fox news (I know its a bad example but an example nevertheless of American mainstream media) while the anchor was discussing the latest news with an Israeli spokes person, the news presenter took it as a fact that the volunteers and the activists on the ship did actually have weapons asking the spokesperson, “what do we know about these weapons?”

The question remains though, why did “Israel” do what it did on those ships? Two reasons are available for this question.

1) The Siege on Gaza. The purpose of this siege has different purposes, firstly it is placed on a part of the Palestinian territory where Hamas has taken control after its counterpart in the West Bank along with “Israel” tried to forcefully overthrow the newly democratically elected government in which Hamas won the majority of the votes. The aim of the siege is not only to try to oust Hamas from the Gaza strip by turning the population against it, but it is also being used by the “Israeli’s” in order to force the Palestinians to make further concessions in their negotiations with Israel. In order to accomplish its goals, “Israel” must make this siege as inhumane as possible. Trying to break this siege on Gaza will ruin the “Israeli” plans of creating an economic peace rather than an actual peace that will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state with full sovereignty over its territory.

2) Breaking this inhumane siege on Gaza which has killed many people humiliates the Zionists. A group of activists that have come from different parts of the world join together in order to break down something the Zionists have been building and see as a strategic tool for their current plans has infuriated the Zionists in all the political and military spheres. The way they see it “we are the superior beings, who are those Goi that are trying to defy our will?” Therefore what happened yesterday was already planned, it was not a mistake and Israel was not going to allow its siege to be broken by anyone.

We have witnessed yesterday how people with a living conscious and thought, who have witnessed the suffering of a people who have done nothing except to call for their legitimate rights of freedom; freedom of choice, freedom of determination and freedom to live act bravely in the face of Tyranny. These activists and those that have been martyred are what each of us needs to and should be, we all have to see injustice and oppression beyond the superficial elements that divide humanity, and to act on eliminating this injustice and oppression. United those people were against this injustice of the Palestinians to the extent that people that still have enmity to each other Greeks and Turks sailed by each other in order to lift this injustice off the Palestinians.

Today Palestine is a cause that is no longer an Arab Cause, but a cause for every free person on this Earth. Today Palestine is a Symbol for Every Free Person. Long Live Palestine.

Barriers Can't Stop Gazans

The BBC has reported that Palestinians in Gaza have managed to dig past the bomb-proof, super strength steel barrier the Egyptians have been building (with financial backing from the US) in order to stop the smuggling of milk, food and other essential goods into Gaza. proof that necessity is the mother of inventions. Meanwhile tyrant Husni Mubarak gave a speech yesterday where the main points he made sure people understood perfectly were that there will be no change to the current constitution, no change for the current government, to pay raise for the employees in the public sector and no end to the emergency laws the country are under. BUT on a more happier note, he said the elections will be fair!

And here is an interesting article on the New york Times on the American University in Cairo, which not only reflects education in Egypt but in most Arab countries and state run educational establishments across the middle east.