Palestinian freedom can not relaxation on the oppression of others – #INA

When injured Yahya Sinwar hurled a stick on the Zionist struggle machine, resisting even within the final moments of his life, he embodied the unbreakable Palestinian trigger for liberation. For 75 years of relentless brutality, we Palestinians have remained steadfast in our pursuit to see freedom on our land.

Our resistance endures as a result of it’s pushed by a profound fact: that the battle for Palestinian liberation is inseparable from the common combat for human dignity. It’s this dedication to collective freedom, somewhat than slim nationwide pursuits, that has each sustained Palestinian resistance and ignited a rising tide of worldwide solidarity.

That’s the reason as we Palestinians watch Syrians flood the streets of Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Homs, tasting freedom for the primary time in generations, our hearts are filled with complicated feelings: grief for many who have been misplaced, hope for what may be attainable, and an unwavering dedication to our personal liberation.

Some now declare that Palestine’s trigger is weakened by the autumn of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, that our battle for liberation by some means relied on his iron grip over Syria. They communicate of “axes of resistance” and geopolitical necessity. However they essentially misunderstand the character of our battle.

The Palestinian trigger has by no means trusted dictators who oppress their very own individuals. Our resistance has by no means wanted those that murdered Palestinian refugees, who imprisoned our fighters, and who maintained many years of chilly peace with our occupiers.

We all know the al-Assad household – like different regional tyrants – used the Palestinian trigger as a supply of nationwide and regional legitimacy whereas in search of to manage and even suppress the Palestinian liberation drive.

The reality of the Yarmouk camp stands as a testomony to this bitter actuality. What was as soon as the colourful coronary heart of Palestinian life in Syria – a spot the place refugees rebuilt some semblance of the houses stolen from them – grew to become a demise lure. When Syrians rose up demanding freedom in 2011, regime forces laid siege to the camp, bombing and ravenous Palestinian refugees alongside Syrians. 1000’s have been killed, detained, and disappeared into prisons. Greater than 100,000 Palestinians have been pressured to flee, turning into refugees twice over. This was the true face of al-Assad’s “assist” for Palestine.

Now, as his prisons are opened, we be taught extra darkish truths. Greater than 3,000 Palestinians had been forcibly disappeared into Syrian prisons since 2011; solely 630 of them survived and have been launched over the previous two weeks. Among the many survivors is Sabri Daraghma from the West Financial institution village of al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, who was once a member of the Palestine Liberation Group. He disappeared in 1982 and spent the next 42 years imprisoned in Syria.

For 50 years, the al-Assad regime maintained its quiet lodging of Israel by the 1974 disengagement settlement at the same time as Israeli jets violated Syrian airspace with impunity and the Israeli military maintained its occupation of the Golan. The rulers in Damascus provided nothing however empty rhetoric about responding on the applicable time – a time that by no means got here.

Some say Palestinians “owe” the al-Assads for his or her assist. However we don’t “owe” anybody for supporting our battle in opposition to a typical enemy. Palestinians are preventing in opposition to a settler-colonial drive pursuing a plan of “Higher Israel” that goes method past the borders of historic Palestine and into neighbouring Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

These of us actually guided by the Palestinian trigger can not separate our battle for justice from the broader liberation of all peoples. The love that emanates from an unwavering dedication to a simply trigger has sustained our resistance by eight many years of displacement and betrayal – not alliances with oppressors, not the assist of dictators, however the unbreakable will of a individuals who refuse to simply accept subjugation.

This spirit, maybe, is why the Palestinian flag is raised every time Arabs collect for freedom as a logo of our collective craving for justice. In the course of the Arab Spring, Palestine stood on the coronary heart of protests – not simply as a trigger, however for instance of unbreakable resistance. It’s no coincidence that those that sought to crush these revolutionary desires labored so desperately to sever this connection.

It has been 13 years for the reason that Syrian individuals took to the streets demanding freedom. They endured barrel bombs, chemical assaults, torture chambers, pressured disappearances, and the world’s indifference. But they persevered. Now, as they return house, they stroll the streets not as refugees however as Syrians. Those that hurl insults at individuals who have gained freedom by their very own palms needs to be ashamed.

In fact, there may be loads of cause to be important of the forces concerned in al-Assad’s fall. We harbour no illusions. The opposition armed teams that now management Syria have colluded with imperial forces. A few of them have acquired funding from america, others have been supported by Israel; others nonetheless have been concerned in oppressing Syrians themselves.

Since al-Assad’s fall, Israel has launched an enormous air bombardment marketing campaign in opposition to army and civilian infrastructure targets throughout the nation and superior additional into Syrian territory. There was largely no response from the brand new authorities in Damascus. Some have celebrated this as Syrians “getting what they deserved” for toppling al-Assad. Others have questioned why Israel has bombed the army capabilities of an anticipated “ally”.

Maybe it’s as a result of Syrian victory has woke up hope in a technology that had been crushed into submission. There’s a actual chance that the tens of millions of newly freed Syrians will declare this liberation for themselves, that they won’t abandon the revolutionary ideas they’ve had for many years.

For us, Palestinians, the pictures of Syrians returning house have stirred one thing deep in our collective consciousness – the potential of a return, of roads reconnected, of borders erased by the straightforward act of individuals strolling house. Even in Gaza, the place individuals have skilled 14 months of genocide that has claimed so many lives, destroyed hundreds of years of historical past, and annihilated complete cities, the information of Syria has reverberated.

The Palestinian trigger endures as a result of it’s simply, as a result of it’s proper, and since we stock inside us one thing that can not be defeated: a collective reminiscence that withstands erasure. Israel stays what it has at all times been: a settler colonial mission that we Arabs will proceed to withstand.

From the refugee camps of Lebanon to the besieged streets of Gaza, from the divided hills of Jerusalem to the diaspora scattered throughout the globe, we Palestinians stay unbowed, unbroken, and unbeholden to something however our inalienable proper to freedom. The autumn of a dictator doesn’t weaken what was by no means his to strengthen. Our trigger is carried within the hearts of tens of millions who know that true liberation lifts all and chains none.

The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.