I am the Syrian traitor recovered by Israel, by Omar Youssef Souleimane – L’Express

Since October 7, I have lost the majority of my Arab friends. In their eyes, we must not reveal anti-Semitism in the Middle East in front of Westerners, so as not to support the Zionist agenda. Especially in the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian war. Several sent me messages to cut ties following the publication of my texts on hatred of Jews. Articles were published in Arabic, explaining that I want to be famous, that I want money, that I am a traitor. The saddest thing is that with some of these ex-friends, we demonstrated together against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. They were my comrades in the Syrian revolution, they know very well that demonizing Israel is an essential part of the regime’s propaganda to stay in power, a scarecrow intended to scare the population. There, the most dangerous accusation was being called an “agent of Israel”: it carried a death sentence. Creating an enemy abroad, establishing a state of emergency to justify all the crimes committed against its people, this is a banal dictatorial game. But, in the case of Israel, the subject remains sensitive even for opponents of the regime, as hatred against this country is so ingrained in people’s minds. For believers or atheists, Christians or Muslims, jihadists or communists, pro-Assad or anti-Assad people, Israel remains this “colonialist” state that must be gotten rid of.

From the start of this war, I was threatened on social networks. “I’m going to find him and I’m going to destroy his face,” an Arab journalist living in France said on Facebook. I received insults in French and in Arabic, simply for saying a truth that everyone knows. We know well that the word “Jew” is an insult in the Middle East. We know that more than 800,000 lived in Arab countries before the creation of the State of Israel, and that only a few tens of thousands remain, even though they had lived there for centuries. Everyone had to leave. We know that when we were little, at school and on television, Jews were portrayed as monsters, and often described as “descendants of pigs and monkeys”. We also know that Hamas is only an Islamo-fascist movement, that its project is to “liberate” the al-Aqsa mosque from the Jews and to found an Islamic state. Syrians have been called upon to support the Palestinian cause in its “Hamassian” version because of its collaboration with the Assad regime. We know that Hamas, like Assad, takes advantage of public money to its advantage. Instead of building schools, hospitals, developing cultural life and infrastructure, it uses its means to increase its military potential, manufacture and buy weapons, dig tunnels: even irrigation pipes financed by aid. international are used to manufacture missiles! Hamas is selling itself to whoever pays the best, today Iran. The leaders hide in the tunnels of Gaza or the luxury hotels of Qatar while their people no longer find drinking water. We know all this, but when we declare it in public, we are attacked and abandoned by those around us.

You should know that the Syrian refugee in France has already lost his family, his property, and many friends, because of his political commitment against Bashar al-Assad. Today, he is also losing comrades of the revolution. Fortunately, there are always voices, even minor ones, opposed to this spectacle of hatred on social networks. They declare their anger against an absurd war of more than a hundred years between Arabs and Jews, a conflict where only civilians pay a very high price.

In France, for this “Arab”, the situation is not better. He must choose his side, for or against Israel. For or against the Palestinian victims. It’s as binary as that. However, the current situation is very complicated. In some cases, if we have the impression of having understood the Israeli-Palestinian conflict well, it is because it has been poorly explained to us. Simplification makes us demonize or love others as we see fit. We judge by emotion and not the mind. For many French activists, especially from the left, the Arab migrant, even when he is naturalized, must remain an eternal Arab refugee, and above all not express an independent opinion that goes against the grain. He must support Palestine, period. Otherwise, it is because it is taken over by the extreme right. The same speech is unfortunately repeated when we criticize Islam in France.

Today, all those of Arab origin who have remained faithful to their progressive principles are doubly exiled. Firstly, because they are committed against dictatorial regimes in their country of origin, and secondly because they are often misunderstood in France.

Personally, every time I experience an attack, all I think about is my mother, the only person who accepted me as an atheist in my home country, Syria. Today, I would like to talk to him about my ideas, about these permanent criticisms whenever we talk about Israel, and about the extremism which only causes more heartbreak in French society. Maybe she would understand me. But I can’t communicate with my mother. Bashar al-Assad’s regime monitors cell phones, telephones and minds, in a country where walls only have ears.

* Writer and poet born in Damascus, Omar Youssef Souleimane participated in demonstrations against the regime of Bashar el-Assad, but, hunted by the secret services, had to flee Syria in 2012. Refugee in France, he published with Flammarion The Little Terrorist, The Last Syrian, A room in exile, and recently Being French.