Working for a Democratic Future for Syria and the Sham Region

A statement by the One Democratic State Initiative on December 10, 2024

The Syrian régime was no ally of Palestine. It massacred Palestinians from Tel al-Zaatar to Yarmouk, took part in dismantling the Palestinian resistance as well as the national resistance in Lebanon and proposed normalizing relations with the colony time and time again (it was the colony that refused). The Syrian régime was also the enemy of its own people. It oppressed Syrians over decades, took part in the massacre and displacement of millions of Syrians and fragmented the Syrian society by granting or denying rights and privileges on the basis of identity and by enacting neoliberal policies.

The Syrian dictatorship followed a model of governance that is based on destroying society's capacity to organize politically, and on relying on external "legitimacy" instead. By weakening the society's capacity to organize against its régime, this model increases the vulnerability of the whole country, including the régime itself and even its decision-makers on a personal level, in the face of external actors. The fall of the Syrian régime, the dismembering of Syrian society and territory and the mass murder of Syrians have proven this political choice to be disastrous for all parties involved—except, of course, for expansionist regional powers such as Turkey and Iran and colonial powers of both the "West" and the "East".

The alliance of Palestinian factions with this dictatorship has also proven to be an erroneous political choice. Tying the future of the resistance and of Palestine to the survival of a criminal régime is not only immoral —those who kill their own people do not liberate Palestine— but also a strategic failure.

For these reasons, we in Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora share the joy of the Syrian people in the fall of this régime; but at the same time, we understand that the future of Syria and the Sham region will not necessarily be brighter due to this fall. None of the regional or colonial powers hold the interest of our peoples at heart. We take particular caution of the settler colony of Israel again proving itself to be an existential threat to the region by taking advantage of developments to target and occupy even more Syrian land, an endeavor that must be resisted by any truly representative government of the Syrian people.

The future can only be brighter through the establishment of states that are the antithesis of our region's political entities, particularly the settler colony of Israel: meaning, as mentioned in the "Tomorrow's Palestine" declaration, states that are democratic in that they are functional administrative tools through which societies express their political will and that are secular in that they safeguard citizens' freedom of belief without weaponizing identities or claiming religious or identitarian legitimacy.

Building a democratic and secular Syria will be a step toward building a free, democratic and secular Palestine, and will provide a model of governance and of society for the region and even the world. We cannot count on existing powers to accomplish this for us. A brighter future is at hand when we rebuild what they have sought to destroy: The capacity of society to organize around a democratic and secular political vision. Accordingly, the One Democratic State Initiative calls on all those in positions of authority and influence to reconsider their political choices in light of recent events and of this analysis. And we call on all in Syria, Palestine and the region to play an active role in political organizations that strive for liberation and freedom.

Long live Syria, long live Palestine.

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