Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“There are those who believe that any local actor is but the puppet of some external actor. Such people can’t acknowledge any agency for local actors. That’s, of course, a very poor way of perceiving the situation. “We are against both American imperialism and Russian imperialism as well as Iran’s reactionary intervention abroad. And the result of foreign domination is always similar. Whether the puppet master is Russia or the United States, puppet regimes are puppet regimes. And the Assad regime had become one for a very long time, except that it was a puppet with two competing masters, giving it a little bit of space. All this has collapsed and is over now. “HTS does not have the same force that the Taliban had. It’s smaller, weaker than what the Taliban were. And it would be hard for them to impose themselves on the Kurds, just as it would be hard for them to really get rid of those Syrian opposition forces that are completely dominated by Turkey, which are in the north. Likewise, I...

Investigate 4,000 French soldiers for ‘war crimes’ in Palestine, says MP

  The Geography of Death in Aleppo (1) Leave, convert, or die. —King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to the Jews of Spain Down with the regime and the opposition… Down with the Arab and Muslim Worlds… Down with the United Nations Security Council… Down with the World… Down with Everything… —Occupied Kafranbel, October 14, 2011 Aleppo, once Syria’s capital of classical music, sophisticated cuisine, and Islamic culture, today lies in ruins. Insurgents controlled two-thirds of the city for four years before it fell to the regime in December 2016. This chapter begins with a brief urban history that explores the ways Aleppo’s urban fabric has evolved since the mid-nineteenth century. It argues that the city’s urban forms from various historical stages, including the Ottoman Empire, French Mandate, and post-independence, have been reorganized and utilized by the Syrian forces since 2011 to break the city.  Using the concept of “urbicide” (the deliberate and systematic destruction of a ...

Wayward wisdom and forgotten lore turn up there. In this market stories are told and items of historical information are delivered. Whatever is in demand on this market is in general demand everywhere else. Now, whenever the established dynasty avoids injustice, prejudice, weakness and double-dealing, with determination keeping to the right path and never swerving from it, the wares on its market are as pure silver and fine gold. When it is influenced by selfish interests and rivalries, or swayed by vendors of tyranny and dishonesty, the wares of its market-place become as dross and debased metals. The intelligent critic must judge for himself as he looks around, examining this, admiring that, and choosing the other.          — Ibn Khaldûn (1332-1406),  The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History,  Princeton 1967, pp. 23–4.

 Spectrums of death A spectrum of violence was operating in Syria well before the revolution, but since 2011, it has been reconfigured. It allows the Syrian regime to deploy gradual techniques that create uneven death worlds. The spectrum of violence starts with the fear of being arbitrarily arrested and subjugated to torture. It includes the siege and subsequent politics of starvation. It involves the various ways Syrians are tortured and indiscriminately killed. In many of these cases, torture is not performed to gain information, but rather to actualize state power. The combination of direct and indirect violence that Syrians have experienced since 2011 has led to catastrophic humanitarian conditions.68 The Syrian regime and its allies have created a spectrum of death worlds where bodies are subjected to various forms of violence. The cruelty of a technique does not have a universal impact; its effect varies from one body to another. For example, crossing a checkpoint has an une...

In a region where colonialism, imperialism and authoritarianism are entangled in a web of interests, rebuilding Syria and developing a mass movement against Israel and US as well as an appeal to renew the spirit of 2010/2011 of overthrowing the rotten, authoritarian and crime-complicit regimes are inseparable. A ‘free Syria’ cannot be free in a sea of unfree region.  When I posted a comment similar to the above on alquds.co.uk, replying to an article by someone defending  the leader  of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham’s stance on Israel, my comment about the reactionary forces involved was censored and went unpublished. “For too long,” writes Hicham Safieddine , “the Assad regime invoked the conflict with Israel to justify its repressive measures against its people. Its opponents have long dared it to launch resistance in the Golan. Now that the opposition is in power, no such plan is in sight.” Thus  fighting colonialism and authoritarianism should not be exclusive. The curre...

“Data collected by the European Commission and analysed by Al Jazeera shows that since October 7, the EU has awarded Israeli institutions more than 238 million euros ($250m), including 640,000 euros ($674,000) to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a top aerospace and aviation manufacturer supplying the Israeli army “While universities are often seen as bastions of civil freedoms, Israeli scholar Maya Wind said the Israeli academia was the backbone of the country’s military industry.”

Necropolitics: The Taxonomies of Death in Syria (2) Bare life and political opponents Quickly after seizing power, the Baath party produced internal and external enemies to mobilize the population and maintain supremacy over state institutions. In the early days, most of these enemies were within the Baath and hence the purges quickly took place within the party. Once Baath leaders who constituted a threat to Assad’s rule were thrown in jail, the focus shifted to the Muslim Brotherhood and Iraqi Baath members. Since the 2011 revolt, the contours of internal and external enemies became blurred and overnight a large segment of the Syrian population became the enemy and was reduced to bare life. Since it seized power on March 8, 1963, the Baath party has instrumentalized the state of emergency to crush its political enemies. The main enemy during the initial period was within the military and the party, as well as among the allies that supported its coup. The historic partner of the Baath...