‘Two sides of the identical coin’: activists denounce Assad’s criticism of Israel | Battle information in Syria

International Courant

On Saturday, Bashar al-Assad, the top of the Syrian regime, delivered a speech on the Arab-Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia. His name for an finish to the struggle on Gaza sparked anger amongst activists in northwestern Syria, who noticed Israel’s condemnation as hypocritical.

Al-Assad criticized the “vicious cycle” of permitting Israel to commit massacres after which being content material to supply humanitarian help fairly than safety for the Palestinian folks.

“A proper can’t be restored when the legal has develop into a decide and the thief has develop into a referee,” he mentioned, referring to the position of Western nations within the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

For the reason that starting of the battle between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Syrian activists have used the phrase “two sides of the identical coin” to explain each the Syrian regime and Israel’s crimes in opposition to the Syrian and Palestinian folks. They see al-Assad’s accusations of crimes and impunity as an outline of what he has executed in Syria over the previous 12 years.

For the reason that starting of the battle between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Syrian activists have used the phrase “two sides of the identical coin” to explain each the Syrian regime and Israel’s crimes in opposition to the Syrian and Palestinian folks (Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera)

Bombing underneath the radar

Munira Baloch, a 34-year-old journalist, mentioned she believes Assad was in a position to stay on the head of his regime regardless of his crimes as a result of he was given a “inexperienced gentle” to do what he wished in opposition to the Syrian folks.

She informed Al Jazeera that the regime’s apply of utilizing flimsy pretexts to justify bombings and crimes, which the world condones, continues to today.

In October, Gaza was not the one space bombed. As a substitute, Idlib witnessed its most intense navy escalation in three years. A whole bunch of areas, together with civilian ones, have been focused by air and artillery strikes, killing and wounding dozens of individuals and triggering a brand new wave of displacement.

“The coverage is similar in each nations, specifically using intensive bombing to drive out opponents,” Baloch mentioned. She lived in Rankous in rural Damascus earlier than being repeatedly pressured to maneuver and settling in Idlib six years in the past. “We (Gaza and northwest Syria) are each densely populated areas underneath siege and fixed bombardment.”

Baloch nonetheless remembers the months she endured a siege by regime forces, residing with six households in a two-room home with out electrical energy, water or heating: “We ran out of breadcrumbs till we accepted the Idlib displacement deal,” says she. mentioned.

Political hypocrisy

In latest weeks there have been many pictures of Palestinians being pushed from northern Gaza to the south on foot.

That introduced again painful recollections for Ali al-Dalati, who was displaced along with his household in quest of security about six years in the past. In January 2017, the 26-year-old activist and his household walked eight kilometers (5 miles) from the village of Bassemah – which was bombed by regime forces with chemical weapons, incendiary phosphorus and napalm – to the village of Deir Kanon. within the Damascus countryside.

Ali al-Dalati was displaced along with his household about six years in the past from the village of Bassemeh, Syria, which was bombed by regime forces, to the village of Deir Kanon (Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera).

“I can not overlook it,” he informed Al Jazeera, of the scene of individuals gathering to achieve the secure zone, which “appeared just like the Day of Judgment.”

Throughout their displacement, these subsequent to him have been focused by snipers, much like the Palestinians focused by Israel. Al-Dalati recalled that whoever walked to the secure zone couldn’t method any of the lifeless on the highway. “My neighbor who got here with us was killed, after which her son was killed as a result of he tried to tug her physique to bury it,” he mentioned.

Al-Dalati, who arrived in Idlib on January 31, 2017, noticed invites from al-Assad, whom he described as a “struggle legal”, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whose forces occupied 4 Arab nations (Syria, Lebanon, Iraq) . and Yemen) to the highest as hypocritical and which reveals that there isn’t any precise intention to supply assist to the Palestinians.

Al-Dalati mentioned he believes the present “recognition” of the Palestinian trigger and the rising variety of deaths are fueling worldwide curiosity, including that condemning one crime and never one other will not be acceptable.

The identical killers

Talal al-Loush, a 61-year-old activist who was expelled from Homs to Idlib 9 years in the past, informed Al Jazeera that he couldn’t hearken to Bashar al-Assad’s total speech as a result of he felt “nauseated.” He was amazed that the person answerable for the killing and arrest of lots of of hundreds and the displacement of tens of millions would converse on behalf of Gaza.

“The killers are the identical, however the one who pulls the set off is totally different,” al-Loush mentioned, recalling the crimes he witnessed in Homs between 2012 and 2013, when regime forces and allied Iranian and Shiite militias dedicated horrific massacres and compelled civilians into displacement, much like Israeli actions in Gaza.

Talal al-Loush was expelled from Homs to Idlib 9 years in the past (Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera)

Al-Loush believes that Israel’s navy superiority has allowed the nation to commit crimes inside a shorter time frame than what the Syrian regime wanted. “The movies displaying the extent of the destruction and killing in Gaza are the identical scenes we noticed in Homs ten years in the past,” he mentioned.

Torture within the identify of Palestine

The Syrian regime’s crimes affected Palestinians and Syrians alike, in response to Muhammad Taha, a 25-year-old Palestinian who lived by means of the two-year siege within the Yarmouk Camp neighborhood, south of Damascus. Dozens died there of hunger.

Taha, born in Damascus and now residing in Idlib after being displaced, believes that the Syrian regime and the leaders of the nations surrounding Palestine are merely shields for Israel. He mentioned he was not stunned by the similarities between the crimes dedicated in opposition to civilians by the Syrian regime and the Israeli assaults on Gaza, such because the bombings of civilians, hospitals, mosques, church buildings, civil protection groups and ambulances.

Assist for the Palestinians is a false declare by the Syrian regime, Taha mentioned. He factors as proof to the ‘Palestine Department’, the notorious navy intelligence division in Damascus identified for its brutal torture of prisoners. “Not a single Palestinian household in Syria was spared” as at the very least considered one of its members was held on the facility, he mentioned.

(Al Jazeera)

‘Two sides of the identical coin’: activists denounce Assad’s criticism of Israel | Battle information in Syria

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