BEIRUT: When Suleiman Ghanem went home to Daraa to get married last March, his friends in Sabra joked that he was going there to die, so they snapped a picture of him. That same picture now hangs over the main street of the Sabra market, a tribute to a young martyr of the Syrian uprising.
The picture of the 24-year-old hangs from loose wires above the poor, crowded and densely populated predominantly Palestinian neighborhood, where many residents have long supported the Syrian government because of its hard line against Israel and the fact that living conditions there for Palestinians are relatively good compared to those in neighboring Lebanon. But today, such support seems to be waning.
“I was against the revolution in the beginning. I thought the Syrian people were comfortable,” said Mohammed Qatantani, a 27-year-old shopkeeper who has taken many trips to Syria over the years, always admiring the good infrastructure, affordable healthcare and rights for Palestinians that he never saw in Lebanon.
“But then I saw the news: the mass graves, the executions and the torture. It looked like Israel had invaded Palestine. Oppression isn’t pretty wherever it happens,” he said. He added that he had been with the Egyptian revolution from day one, because of Mubarak’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza: the repeated closure of the Rafah border crossing, and violent government clampdowns on those who protested. .
It was three weeks into the Syrian uprising – which began March 15 – when Qatantani says he began to change his mind, unable to believe his neighbor, a young man who sold CDs and was engaged to be married, was part of the armed gangs the Syrian government blamed for the unrest.
A series of incidents throughout the uprising contributed to the erosion of Palestinian support for Assad’s government. In a televised press conference on March 24, presidential spokeswoman Bouthaina Shaaban accused foreigners, including Palestinians, of inciting violence.
Two separate demonstrations on the Israeli border, on May 15 and June 5, heightened Palestinian mistrust, as first six and then 20 died at the hands of Israeli forces, with many feeling the Syrian government played an implicit role in the violence by allowing protesters to reach the border.
The deaths led to a mutiny in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, with residents openly casting blame on their local leadership, the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The release in May of a video showing the torture of 13-year-old Syrian boy, Hamza Khatib, led the U.S.-based Egyptian Palestinian poet Tamim Barghouti to reject the support of the Syrian government for the Palestinian cause.
“He who tortures a child to death is incapable of liberating a land, nor defeat an enemy, nor provide support to an ally,” he wrote. “If the liberation of Palestine requires torturing the children of Syria, then let it remain under occupation, for that would be better for Syria's and Palestine's children.”
In Sabra, another resident, who declined to give his name, said he was never against the Syrian government until a friend of his died. Now he says he follows the news of the uprising closely and sees the government making “mistake after mistake.”
Syria’s apparent attempt to win over public support through the Palestinian cause seems to have backfired, with once loyal supporters beginning to question the government’s claims.
“Where are these armed foreign gangs coming from?” Qatantani wonders. “They’re killing peaceful protesters, and [refugees are] fleeing to Lebanon and Turkey. From what? Nothing?”
Indeed, as the uprising in Syria continues, many Palestinians appear to be increasingly sympathizing with the anti-government protesters, despite their traditional alliance.
“The position of Palestinians is mixed. On the one hand, Syria treats Palestinians better than any other Arab country. But as for politics, with satellite TV, people make up their minds by what they see,” says Hilal Khashen, a politics professor at the American University of Beirut.
He adds that sectarianism could be a component in Palestinian support for protesters, as Palestinians, like Syrians, are predominantly Sunni. He notes that Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, a Shiite allied with the Alawite minority leadership in Syria, has made several strong statements against the uprising in Syria, calling the protest movement a foreign conspiracy. Meanwhile, the Palestinians’ Islamic party Hamas, which has a representative office in Damascus, has remained silent on the issue.
He also suggests that Palestinian support for the uprising could be related to Israel’s position.
“Israel doesn’t want regime change. It’s pressing the U.S. to keep Assad in place,” he says. “That’s why the U.S. is making mild statements.”
Samer Abu Fakher, 21, a student at Lebanese American University and a Palestinian activist, says that he supports the uprising in general because of the government’s history of repression in both Syria and Lebanon. But he’s worried about the possible international or Muslim Brotherhood involvement in a new democratic Syria. Either move, Abu Fakher believes, would be bad news for Syria and the Palestinians.
Milad Abdullah, who sells nuts at his shop on Sabra’s main road, says he has never supported the Syrian government because of its role in the Lebanese Civil War, but he understands why some Palestinians continue to do so.
“I think most Palestinians are against the Syrian government but are afraid to talk,” he says.
“They think Syria’s with them, so they should be with Syria. But that’s not right. Syria was never with Palestinians because they loved them, it was just to serve their interest.”
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