A small group of Syrian activists staged an emergency protest across from Number 10 on 7 March. News of Israel bombing southern Syria prompted the call for protest from the Syrian societies of King’s College London, University College London, and SOAS University, along with a handful of other activists.
Only a few months after Assad was overthrown, Syria is being faced with another threat. On February 25, Israel carried out several airstrikes in Kiswah, a town south of Damascus, and Deraa, a southern province.
Dania al-Asadi, an alumnus of King’s and the organiser of the protest, directly addressed Keir Starmer. She demanded the UK government stop funding Israel, to lift the current sanctions on Syria, and to impose sanctions on Israel instead.
“These attacks are not about security,” said Dania. “They are about power, occupation and destruction.” She criticized Israel for violating the 1974 agreement, which established a UN-monitored buffer zone between Israel and Syria, and condemned the world for letting Israel act without any consequences.
“Syria belongs to Syria. Our resistance will go to our children’s children.”
Dania al-Asadi
Douna Han Ahmed, a human rights activist, told Roar, “We are very thrilled with the downfall of the Assad regime after suffering for fourteen years. But Israel insists on ruining our happiness.”
Since Assad’s fall, Israel has overtaken a UN buffer zone, and now maintains that southern Syria must be demilitarised to create a new “security zone”. Israel Katz, the Israeli Defense Minister, cites fears that southern Syria will “become a southern Lebanon”, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah poses “an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”
Douna sees it differently: she condemns the move as a violation of international law and an attempt to take land from a defenseless country that has “no weapons, no infrastructure, and no economy.” She asserts that this will lead to suffering for both sides, and that Israel’s actions have created a new cycle of violence.
“I want to say this [to the world]: shame on you. You let us be killed for fourteen years, then allowed Israel to occupy our land. But we have fought for freedom then, and we will fight back now.”
Douna Han Ahmed
‘Axis of Resistance’?
One protestor, Dania, voiced heightened scepticism at the intentions of the ‘Axis of Resistance’ itself. For decades, the Assad dynasty touted its key role in the anti-Israel coalition spearheaded by Iran. In her view, this is a rhetorical mask for Iran, Hezbollah and the Assad dynasty to advance their own regional interests. She went as far as to suggest that Israel and Iran were allies.
Such a view would be heavily contested, and does not represent the collective perspective of the protestors or societies present.
To read Roar’s interview with the head of the KCL Free Syrian Society, click here.
