IS THE OVERTHROW OF ASSAD GOOD FOR THE PALESTINIANS?

Wed 18 December 2024:

Yesterday morning thousands of Syrians took to the streets of Damascus and across Syria to celebrate living in a country free of the authoritarian regime of Bashar Al-Assad as the rebels had announced the overthrow of his regime of 24 years.

Opposition fighters entered the capital Damascus around 5am local time without any resistance, quickly capturing the headquarters of main government institutions following the reported withdrawal of Assad regime forces and government personnel.

Russia claimed that Al-Assad left Syria after meeting a number of opposition representatives, but did not reveal details about the nature of meetings or where they were held. It later revealed that Al-Assad had been granted asylum in Moscow on “humanitarian grounds”.

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In a recorded video, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali said that he remained at his home, was ready to support continuity of governance and ready for a smooth transition to anybody chosen by the people of Syria.

Rebel leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, commonly known as Abu Mohammad Al-Julani, ordered his men to protect public institutions, which would remain under Al-Jalali’s supervision until they are officially handed over to the new rulers.

At the same time, the rebels freed thousands of political prisoners from Al-Assad’s prison, including the notorious Sednaya Prison. Palestinians, including members of Hamas and its military wing Al-Qassam Brigades, are among them. However, hundreds if not thousands more prisoners are seen on CCTV in the prison but cannot be reached.

Now, in addition to the existence of US troops and Russian bases, Syria is dominated by several parties, some of them backed by the US such as the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist entity by Turkiye. It has been a candid ally of the Assad regime since 2017. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are also backed by the US. The SDF controls large swathes of northeast Syria.

Meanwhile, Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham – Organisation for the Liberation of the Levant – commonly referred to as HTS is currently the largest opposition body. It toppled the Assad regime and dominated most of the country, including cities such as Al-Quneitra, which includes a buffer zone and shared borders with the Israel occupied Golan Heights.

How do the changes in Syria affect the Palestinians? Some monitors, who believed that Al-Assad was part of a resistance axis, which included Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza, expect that the overthrow of Al-Assad will choke the Palestinians.

Others, on the other hand, believe that the Assad regime was no more than a guardian for the Israeli occupation, which is troubled by his overthrow and the rise of HTS as a dominant force in Syria.

As a Palestinian, I see Al-Assad as not just a guardian of Israel, but its defender. The Assad family, which comes from the Alewite minority, exploited the alleged hostility with the Israeli occupation to reinforce its authoritarian rule which was basically based on the oppression of the Syrians, suppressing their freedoms and deterring any real attempts to fight the Israeli occupation.

In fact, this was part of a disengagement agreement signed between the regime and Israel in 1974, ending all the attritions that had existed for months after the Six Day War. A UN Disengagement Observer Force buffer zone was created under the terms of the deal.

For its part, the Assad regime complied with this US-brokered agreement. However, since I was born, I have witnessed repeated Israeli violations of this agreement. The Assad regime’s reaction has always been to complain to the international community and pledge to respond at the appropriate time and place, which it has never done.

This peace agreement, which was the first of its kind between Israel and the Arab regimes, lasted for more than 45 years. During this time, the Assad regime turned Syria into a buffer zone between Israel and the Arab and Muslim nations, using its relationship with Iran as a pretext to pound any resistance attempt against Israel. The Assad regime even took no action in response to the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights in the early 1980s.

Not only did the Syrians suffer during the reign of the Assad family, but so did the five million Palestinian refugees. During the regime’s brutal crackdown on the Syrian revolution, which erupted in 2011, the regime killed, detained, forcibly disappeared and displaced hundreds of Palestinians.

Following the overthrow of the regime, more than 600 Palestinians were released from prisons, including operatives from Hamas’ military wing Al-Qassam Brigades. Hamas fighters never acted against the Israeli occupation from within Syria, in spite of this, the Assad regime detained them as part of its duty to protect Israel.

Though many highlight that the Assad regime hosted the Hamas leadership and training bases, but that was to reinforce the so-called “resistance axis”, which allowed Israel a pretext to play the victim and fight against an “existential threat” from Iran and its proxies.

Now that the Syrian regime has gone and Hezbollah has been pounded harshly and beyond repair following the collapse of its lifeline corridor, the Sunni Muslims, under the leadership of revolutionary Abu Mohammad Al Julani, will emerge as a major power in the area and work for the liberation of Palestine.

Many have claimed that Al-Julani is an extremist and with him leading the Syrian rebels chaos and instability would prevail in Syria, along with extremist misinterpretions of Sharia Law. The reality is the opposite as Al-Julani, who quit the US-backed Al-Qaeda, has united most of the moderate and effective rebel factions and established a stable semi-state in Idlib where minorities were respected, Sharia Law was implemented in the areas where people accepted it and not implemented where people rejected it, giving Christians freedom of worship at churches.

Al-Julani developed a successful governance system that covered all sectors including the successful military industry. He produced advanced reconnaissance and attack drones, missiles with large warheads and other important equipment that most of the independent Arab and Muslim countries have not produced.

Now, he must concentrate on stabilising Syria and work on a peaceful transition, rebuild state institutions, implement social reconciliations among the different sects and ethnicities, lay down a new constitution and repair Syria’s international relations. Once he achieves this, he can turn his sights of Israel.

No unstable country with fragile political and social systems can engage in a war with any country, even if it was the weakest one on earth. Al-Julani, a native of the Golan Heights, will never forget his homeland.

Meanwhile, Israel announced yesterday that it was stepping away from its peace deal with Syria, claiming that it has “collapsed” and ordered its occupation army to take over the buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights, Mount Hermon and several areas in Al-Quneitra Province. This gives Al-Julani the leverage to start from scratch with Israel. If this happens, America and other international powers are expected to interfere, at least by spreading chaos in Syria.

The situation in Syria is one which Israel and all its allies have been working to undermine or delay. One reason could be because the ouster of Al-Assad and the collapse of the “resistance axis” is better for the Palestinians than the contrary.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Independent Press.

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