T. 🇫🇷🇦🇷🇲🇦🇪🇬

عام على الإبادة.. حتى لا تنام الذاكرة "فيقوا يا بني معروف.. فيقوا نزف الشهداء".. صرخة حفرت مكانها في الذاكرة الجمعية لأهالي السويداء، منذ أن استفاقوا على مشاهد المجازر والإبادة التي ارتكبتها قوات السلطة المؤقتة خلال اجتياح تموز من العام الماضي. صرخة ما زالت تتردد في البيوت والساحات، وفي ذاكرة كل من فقد قريباً أو صديقاً أو جاراً، وكل من شهد تلك الأيام التي غيّرت وجه السويداء إلى الأبد. مع اقتراب الذكرى السنوية الأولى لبدء المجازر، تتسارع التحضيرات لإحياء هذه المناسبة، التي تستحق أن تبقى حاضرة في الوعي العام. فمن المقرر أن تنظم جاليات أبناء السويداء في عدد من دول العالم، بينها كندا وألمانيا وهولندا وأستراليا، سلسلة فعاليات تمتد بين الثاني عشر والعشرين من تموز، تشمل وقفات صمت، ومعارض صور، وأنشطة توثيقية تستحضر أسماء الضحايا وشهادات الناجين، وتؤكد أن العدالة تبدأ بحفظ الحقيقة. في السويداء، لا تحتاج الذكرى إلى دعوات كثيرة كي تحضر. فهي لم تغادر أصلًا. يكفي أن تفتح صفحات أبناء السويداء على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي لتجد صور الراحلين تعود من جديد، وأسماءهم تتردد، وحكاياتهم تُروى، وكأن الجميع يرفض أن يسمح للنسيان بأن ينتصر. هنا أم تكتب لابنها، وهناك أخ يستعيد صورة أخيه، وفي مكان آخر يروي ناجٍ شهادة جديدة، لأن الحقيقة لا تزال تبحث عمن يحفظها. فالسويداء، رغم مرور عام، لم تخرج بعد من حدادها، فما زالت آثار الجريمة حاضرة في تفاصيل الحياة اليومية، وفي البيوت التي فقدت أبناءها، وفي العائلات التي ما زالت تنتظر إنصافًا وعدالة لم يتحققا. لذلك، فإن إحياء الذكرى لا يقتصر على استعادة الألم، بل هو فعل مقاومة للنسيان، ورسالة تؤكد أن الجرائم الكبرى لا تسقط بالتقادم، ولا يجوز أن تتحول إلى مجرد خبر في أرشيف الأحداث. لقد أثبتت تجارب الشعوب أن الأمم التي تحفظ ذاكرتها هي الأقدر على حماية مستقبلها. فالمجازر والإبادات لا تُخلّد حباً بالمأساة، تُلّد كي لا تتكرر، وكي تبقى الحقيقة عصية على التشويه والإنكار. ومن هنا، فإن ترسيخ ذكرى مجازر تموز في السويداء كمناسبة سنوية ثابتة، يحييها أبناء السويداء في الداخل والمهجر، مسؤولية تاريخية وأخلاقية تجاه الضحايا والأجيال القادمة. الذاكرة ليست رفاهية، هي إحدى أدوات العدالة، وكل صورة تُنشر، وكل اسم يُذكر، وكل شهادة تُوثق، هي خطوة إضافية في مواجهة محاولات طمس الحقيقة أو إعادة كتابة التاريخ. الذكرى الأولى ليست نهاية الحداد، إنها بداية لترسيخ تقليد دائم، يحمل رسالة واضحة: أن دماء الضحايا ليست رقماً في سجل، وأن الإبادة التي عاشتها السويداء لن تُنسى، ولن تُختزل بمرور الزمن. فكما تحافظ شعوب العالم على ذاكرة مآسيها الكبرى، وتحوّلها إلى مناسبات راسخة في وجدانها، فإن من حق أهالي السويداء، ومن واجبهم أيضاً، أن يحفظوا ذاكرة شهدائهم، وأن يجعلوا من كل تموز موعداً سنوياً لتجديد العهد بالحقيقة والكرامة والعدالة، حتى لا يتكرر ما حدث، وحتى تبقى الذاكرة يقظة، لأن الشعوب التي تنسى مآسيها تترك الباب مفتوحاً أمام تكرارها. #السويداء_برس

Fraternité !

A year ago today, Syrian government forces accompanied by pro-government tribal militias invaded Sweidaa' governorate. Over the span of six days they engaged in mass killings, rape, mutilation of bodies, and systematic looting. The UN Commission of Inquiry found that these forces killed 1,342 Druze men, women and children. After these forces were forced to withdraw, Druze militias carried out revenge attacks killing about 70 Bedouin residents of Sweidaa'. The scenes of these atrocities rapidly spread on Syrian social media. Almost as disturbing as these scenes were the reactions of many supporters of the Syrian government, who approved of the atrocities and justified them. The massacres and the unapologetic approach of loud government supporters (and the government itself) created a deep rift between Sweidaa' and Sunnis in Syria and unfortunately Syria itself. I've spoken to multiple contacts from and in Sweidaa', of various political persuasions, and all agreed that before the massacres, only a minority among Sweidaa' residents supported the hardline position of Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri and the militiamen who surrounded him (many of whom are Assad era war criminals, drug smugglers, kidnappers for ransom). This all changes after the massacres. Secessionism is now the majority opinion in Sweidaa', as the Syrian state and the majority Sunni population are seen as impossible to reconcile with. In the year that has passed since the massacre, the Syrian government has not worked to rebuild Syrian unity or a united, diverse national identity. But some Syrian revolutionary activists, the true carriers of the revolutionary anti-Assad chant "he who kills his people is a traitor", have worked to rebuild bridges with Sweidaa'. They are not in positions of power, and thus they are doing so by providing assistance when they can, posting on social media, writing articles and speaking to independent media outlets to express their outrage. Blessed be the peace makers. In the photos: Damascus residents light candles last night in solidarity and remembrance of the massacres.

How many times have we heard the often-repeated lie that the Suwayda massacres were simply a response to Druze massacring Bedouins? Or that Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri allegedly lured government forces into Suwayda to ambush them, thereby precipitating the massacres? These narratives appear everywhere, often in attempts to downplay or justify the scale and gravity of what happened to the Druze community in Suwayda. You can even find them in the comments beneath Elizabeth’s post below. Now read these two excerpts from the UN Commission’s report for yourself. They describe how Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri initially responded to the first ceasefire agreement, what ultimately led him to reverse course, and who the victims were in what the Commission describes as “the first major wave of violence against civilians.” Then draw your own conclusions…

For me, this was also a deeply personal tragedy. I went to sleep on July 14 hearing reports that a massive invasion of Suwayda had begun. I then woke up on July 15 to videos circulating online showing every imaginable atrocity: elderly men having their moustaches forcibly shaved, unarmed civilians being executed on camera by gleeful gunmen, and corpses desecrated in the most dehumanizing ways. I still shudder when I think of that day - a day when the world seemed to stop and time itself froze - and of the emotions that I and other family members experienced. Sadness. Anger. Disgust. Fear. A growing sense of foreboding for our distant relatives in Suwayda, and even for our own communities in Lebanon. I don’t remember whether I slept at all that night. When I woke up on July 16, my social media feeds were filled with posts from Syrian Druze friends mourning relatives of every age who had been murdered the previous day and were only then beginning to be identified. I spoke with my family, desperately hoping to hear that our distant relatives in Suwayda - particularly those on my grandmother’s side, many of whom live in the western Suwayda village of Dama - had somehow survived the large-scale attacks that had swept into the province from the west and the north. Unfortunately, we soon learned that my mother’s elderly great-aunt had been executed in her home, along with more than 20 distant relatives from my grandmother’s family. Dama would become one of the more than 35 villages that were pillaged and destroyed. It remains occupied to this day. Despite the heartbreak, there were also moments of relief. My grandmother’s brother and his family all survived. Although they were initially difficult to reach and had apparently fled to a remote, undisclosed location, we at least knew they were alive. In the days that followed, I heard many similar stories. A distant relative from my village in Lebanon, who is married to a woman from Suwayda, told us how his in-laws fled into the nearby woods and spent several days there. Their homes lay within range of the shelling, and they feared that their village could be overrun at any moment. (Fortunately, their village, located in southwestern Suwayda, was not invaded.) I could go on to recount the Israeli intervention, which began in earnest on July 16; the withdrawal of regime forces; the reprisals against Suwayda’s small Bedouin community that claimed dozens of lives; and how those reprisals were cynically exaggerated by supporters of the regime - often using photos and videos of murdered Druze civilians as supposed evidence - to justify a renewed invasion of Suwayda by tens of thousands of Bedouin tribesmen from across Syria. I could also speak of the extraordinary courage of ordinary men who took up whatever weapons they could find and gave their lives defending their families, their villages, and the very existence of our people. (There are only a little over one million Druze in the world, and nearly half of them live in Suwayda.) What matters most, however, is that the Druze, though bruised and battered, stood their ground. Our flag still flies above our mountains. During those terrible days, I made a promise to myself that I would never remain silent about what happened, or about the attempt to destroy our people, no matter what comes my way, or ours. Never on our knees. Never again.

من تدشين النصب التذكاري الذي أنجزه فريق "صبايا سند" في الدوار الشمالي بمدينة شهبا، تخليداً لأسماء شهداء المدينة، وذلك بحضور أهالي الشهداء وفعاليات اجتماعية. وجاءت المبادرة بالتزامن مع إحياء ذكرى شهداء تموز، حيث حمل النصب أسماء الضحايا وسط وقفة صمت وقراءة الفاتحة وزراعة الورود في محيط النصب.

In the Old City of Damascus it’s not about Messi or Ronaldo…

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