Note: This statement, originally published on Sixteen Minutes to Palestine, is a response to the posting from Cornell SJP on the situation in Yarmouk camp in Syria. This is not meant as a comprehensive statement on the conflict in Syria. It is also not our intention to cast aspersions on or vilify Cornell SJP but to respond to the content of their statement. If you would like to add your name to this statement, either as an individual, or as an SJP chapter, please email jareea@gmail.com with the name as it should appear.
All of us have seen the horrifying pictures coming out of Yarmouk refugee camp. Each of us holds our sisters, our brothers, our nieces and nephews, our seedos a little tighter as we struggle to see what can be done for Palestinians who are literally starving to death. Many of those killed by the Assad regime in the past three years were Palestinians, some carrying cameras to document the regime’s brutality, some delivering aid to besieged Syrians, some carrying a weapon while fighting for freedom and dignity, and some sitting quietly in their homes when a TNT barrel fell through their roof. Yarmouk was home to over 100,000 Palestinians. Suffice it to say that there are those in Yarmouk who support the armed resistance, those who don’t, and those who simply want to live, all of them wish to return to their homes in Palestine.
Yet we also know that ultimately Palestinian liberation is incomplete without the liberation of all oppressed people, whether their oppression comes from occupation and settler-colonialism or a repressive regime from within.
We therefore stand in solidarity not only with the Palestinians of Yarmouk, but also with the people of Syria, fighting for freedom and a better future for their children. We totally reject holding the armed resistance responsible for the crimes the Assad regime has committed against the people of Yarmouk and the people of Syria. The government of Syria has the responsibility to protect innocent civilians and allow vital aid to reach those in need. We condemn the Assad regime’s siege on Yarmouk in the strongest terms. To abrogate any of the regime’s responsibility for their own actions is outrageous.
We will not attempt to speak for the people of Yarmouk or Syria, or continue the cynical use of these people as pawns, either in war or in debate. As solidarity activists, and more importantly, as human beings, we stand with the downtrodden, the abject, and the oppressed.
Until freedom,
Individuals, Students and Alumni
Neda Kit, Rutgers SJP
Mohannad Rachid, Loyola University of Chicago SJP
Tarek M. Khalil, University of Illinois at Chicago SJP Alum
Bekah Wolf, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Dina Sayed-Ahmad, Rutgers SJP
Ahmad Aburas, Rutgers SJP
Noran Elzarka, Drew SJP
Ephrain Hussain, Montclaire State University
Shiyam Galyon, University of Texas at Austin PSC Alum
Baha Abusharara, University of Illinois at Chicago SJP
Toufic Haddad, School of Oriental and African Studies
Wael Alasady, Portland State University
George Kadifa, alum of SJP UC Berkeley
Rasha El Endari, University of Toronto
Daniela Jorge, Steinbeis University
Sherry Wolf
SJP Chapters
SJP Ryerson
Rutgers-Newark SJP
Loyola University of Chicago SJP
Drew University SJP
University of Illinois at Chicago SJP
Students Against Israeli Apartheid- University of Toronto (Mississauga)
Others
MENA Solidarity Network-US
Salim Salamah-Yarmouk, Syria
“all of them wish to return to their homes in Palestine”
Has anyone asked them? I’m sure the ‘refugees’ would rather be treated as normal citizens where they live than be used as pawns for ‘leaders’ who care less about them than about their prides.
You and your “open letter” have the freaking gall to completely bypass the alquaida army of freakazoid cannibals on a mass killing spree in Syria?!! Calling them “resistance fighters”?!
Buzz off! You are using the Palestinians in a disgustingly cynical way!
You and your zio-saudi sugar-daddies have lost the war and lost the plot!
Unbelievable!
Unbelievable too that Adam and Phil would fall, twice in a row, for BS infiltrators such as the article above and Talal’s article yesterday – same wording, same lies, SAME MESSAGE OF BASHAR IS BAAAAAAAAD….. for Palestine!
Well he ain’t bad for Palestine and Syria can show you DECADES of support for Palestininas – but he sure is bad for your al Nusra and alquaida heros!
Saudi and israel want to divide the mideast between them. The only way they can do this is if they break up old friends and neighbors. Your letter is part and parcel of that diabolical plot and you’re either useful idiots or downright evil.
Thank you for posting this. Certainly, statements by SJP chapters are important.
Regarding this statement:
Is there any way to measure roughly what percent of Syrian people support the insurgent fighters?
One of the main bodies that is democratic and organized and in opposition to Assad is the Local Coordinating Committees. Their statements are strongly anti-Assad and they receive US funding. However, on their website as of a few days ago the most recent statement repeated perhaps 6 times that they wanted peaceful resistance. A statement from 2011-2012 about them in Wikipedia also said they wanted peaceful resistance.
I am unaware of any other significant liberal or secular groups with Sizable forces in Syria. I am doubtful whether the Free Syria army is secular, and would be interested to know what portion of its factions are not conservative.
The logic of this letter seems to be that the Palestinians will never find justice until Saudi-Western backed al Qaida forces in Syria overthrow the Assad regime. It is hard to imagine a more cynical use of the Palestinian cause. There is even one commentator here that refers to the Palestinian people as Palis who decries their oppression (by Syria, for course).
Right now the quickest way to see the end of the suffering for all of the people of Syria, including their Palestinian guests, is for the war to end. That will happen with the military defeat of the foreign al Aqaida militias which we are in the process of watching now. This war is close to over. Geneva II should lead to a process whereby the rest of the world works to escort those foreign fighters back to their countries of origin.
The term “people dying of hunger” is used loosely by Arabs to dramatically describe harsh times and should not be taken literally. It’s origin dates back to Ottoman times when people were so taxed, they were left with so little to eat that some people actually starved. So the term was handed down from generation to generation and today it’s used in all sauces and it’s being annoyingly used for political reasons, but it doesn’t mean that Palestinians are not having it very rough inside the camp. It’s current use in the Syrian conflict is somewhat like the State Dept -instigated story of the Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait having thrown babies on the floor to steal the incubators from the hospital, which was a bogus story but super charged emotionally to have launched the first Iraq War of 1990. The current version is about “people dying of hunger”.
Rumours are being circulated that the Palestinians in Yarmouk are down to having to eat cats while others are eating grass. The grass part is probably true but Palestinian leaders from Hamas, Fateh and the NGO that distributes food in the camp have flatly denied the story about cats.
There are 12 Palestinian camps in Syria. So why a siege of Yarmouk only and why aren’t rebel fighters in the camp also dying? Talal’s piece was bogus and pure propaganda; today’s is honest but it’s based on the same misinformed facts as the Cornell one from the day before, so we shouldn’t be upset with it.