Syrian opposition activists publish letter in solidarity with Palestine

A group of over 100 prominent Syrian opposition activists, humanitarians and journalists published a letter of solidarity with the Palestinian people and "their fight for liberation from Israeli colonisation and occupation" on Saturday, 11 November.

The letter comes as Israel has assaulted Gaza since 7 October, which has killed more than 11,100 people, provoking condemnation from humanitarians and world leaders alike. The Israeli campaign against Gaza after a surprise Hamas attack on the same date, which left 1,200 Israelis dead and 239 hostages.

"When Syrians see the destruction in Gaza, we sympathise, and we remember what happened in Ghouta and Aleppo. We see the Israelis hitting hospitals and schools and killing people on a huge scale, and it's exactly the same process," Robin Yassin-Kassab, an author on Syria and one of the organisers of the solidarity letter, told The New Arab.

The letter of solidarity specifically came from anti-regime Syrians, who said that while Syrians support the Palestinian cause, the Syrian regime has historically used the Palestinian cause as a tool to "increase oppression within Syria's borders."

On 12 October, the Syrian military said that it was bombing northwest Syria to fight "terrorist groups … which constitute an armed arm of the Israeli entity," referring to the former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which governs northwest Syria.

There is no known connection between HTS and Israel, and rights groups have said that the majority of the casualties of the regime's strikes on the northwest have been civilians.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has positioned himself as a key part of the "axis of resistance," which is said to support the Palestinian cause. He has frequently dismissed Western condemnation of human rights abuses committed by his regime as part of a "Zionist plot" to unseat him from power.

The geopolitical alliances surrounding the current war in Gaza have also further complicated international efforts to show solidarity, as Hezbollah and Iran have publicly claimed to oppose Israel and support Hamas.

Both parties were crucial supporters of the Assad regime and made up the bulk of the ground troops, which enabled the regime to retake opposition-held parts of the country during the civil war.

The letter's organisers have said that geopolitics and propaganda spread by the Syrian regime have, at times, created divisions between the Syrian and Palestinian revolutionary movements.

"Syrians and Palestinians have been at times set at odds by the politics of the Arab spring. One of the purposes of the letters was to get that out of the way … it's important to have mutual solidarity between all oppressed people in our regions," Yassin-Kassab said.

Syrians living in the last opposition pocket of Syria in the northwest have expressed solidarity with Gaza over the last month, drawing murals and holding rallies in support of the Palestinian cause.

Residents of the northwest also launched a fundraising campaign to support the people of Gaza last week despite the overwhelming poverty of the population there.

"Our struggles in the Palestinian and Syrian context are very similar. In Palestine, they are resisting violent occupation, colonisation and an apartheid regime. In Syria, we are resisting a dictatorial authoritarian regime," Razan Saffour, a Syria advocacy specialist and one of the letter organisers, told TNA.

"As Syrians, we know too well what it means to not have people stand in solidarity with you," Saffour said.