Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Russia said Friday it was concerned over the refusal of terrorists from a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Fateh al-Sham Front, to leave Aleppo as Russian and Syrian forces have halted fighting.
The combatants, formerly known as Al-Nusra, and the some 250,000 civilians in terrorist-held areas, have largely avoided the eight escape corridors announced this week by Russia and Syria’s government.
“We are highly concerned at the fact that, despite the goodwill gestures of Moscow and Damascus with the aim of normalizing the situation in Aleppo, we see that Al-Nusra fighters are refusing to leave the city,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Friday that whether Russia extends the pause in fighting further “depends on how the process of fighters leaving the city — which so far is sluggish, unfortunately.”
Asked whether the decision on extending the pause would be taken daily, he said it would be made on the basis of the current situation, since “the situation is changing quite quickly, it could change for the worse.”
At a briefing in Moscow, Lavrov accused fighters from the Fateh al-Sham Front and influential extremist Ahrar al-Sham group of “sabotaging the efforts of the United Nations — with our support, with support of the Syrian government — to get humanitarian aid supplies into east Aleppo.”
He said the fighters “with threats, blackmail and brute force, are obstructing the departure of peaceful civilians from east Aleppo”, as well as that of combatants who are prepared to leave.
Russia is “ready to extend this humanitarian pause” as long as there are not “provocations” by Al-Nusra and allied groups, Lavrov said, adding that “this position was confirmed in our contacts with the United States.”
Lavrov also said Russia is “very concerned” at Turkish strikes on US-backed militias in northern Syria, including Syrian Kurdish fighters.
He said Russia expected the United States, leading a coalition that includes Turkey, to “stay within the framework of the declared aim” of fighting ISIL ‘jihadists’ and the Fateh al-Sham Front.
من ينظر الى تصريحات مسؤولي المملكة الوهابية السعودية عن الخوف على الشعب العربي من التوغل المجوسي الصفوي والموجة الفارسية والخشية على أهل السنة في سورية والعراق ولبنان واليمن من تسونامي التشيع لايقدر على تميييز الحقيقة التي تبدو مثل لعبة الكلمة الضائعة ..
فعليك أن تنقب بين مئات كلمات متداخلة بلا حدود لتعزل كلمة السر الضائعة .. وينهمك الاعلام الخليجي والسعودي والغربي في تقديم الشروح للمواطن العربي ويبذل جهدا خرافيا في محاولة ازالة الغبار والضباب عن عيون هذا المسكين الذي يشاهد العربية والجزيرة اللتين تنظفان له عقله من دخان المعارك التي شوشت عليه رادارات فطرته وتكفلت العربية والجزيرة وفضائيات الايمان والاسلام بمساعدته لوجه الله ..
لكن سنقدم اليوم للمواطن العربي البسيط الكلمة الضائعة السعودية في لعبة الكلمات المتقاطعة التي تفسر حركة المملكة السياسية وكلمة السرخلف حماية أهل السنة والغيرة عليهم .. ونقوم بالنظر الى الأجوبة أفقيا وعموديا .. هذه المساحة من الكلمات المتقاطعة يجب أن تمتد على مدى عقود .. وبتقاطع الكلمات في الأجوبة التي نجدها من وثائق التاريخ القريب والبعيد نعرف ان كانت السعودية قلقة على العروبة وعلى أهل السنة في كل هذه الدول وان كانت وضعت عباءتها السوداء النفطية من اجل أن تصنع منها مظلة كبيرة يتظلل بها أهل السنة ضحايا المؤامرة الصفوية والهلال الشيعي .. حيث لاظل الا ظل السعودية لحماية أهل السنة ..
هذه عينة من صور وعناوين لصحف المملكة في فترات الصراعات الكبرى والتفجرات التي هزت المنطقة وشكلت وعيها وروحها .. وعناوين الصحف الرسمية تعكس سياسة الدول وقناعاتها وسياساتها وهي تأريخ لمرحلة وتحدثنا كما كتب التاريخ عن أحوال منطقة وأهلها ورجالها وملوكها ..
في هذه الصور المتفرقة لصحف سعودية لايمكن الا أن نلعب لعبة الكلمات التاريخية المتقاطعة التي تتقاطع فيها الأجوبة بالدليل القاطع والبرهان الذي لايردّ ..
أحد العناوين يقوم بتكفير الرئيس المصري الراحل جمال عبد الناصر .. ويومها لم يكن جمال عبد الناصر يهدد أهل السنة ولم بكن يتهم بالسماحللمشروع الشيعي بالتغلغل في مصر .. لكنه كان كافرا كما يظهر في توجيه الصحيفة السعودية ..
ثم بعد نهاية مرحلة الزعيم عبد الناصر .. يظهر عنوان في صحيفة سعودية يعلن وقوفه الى جانب شاه ايران العدو التاريخي للعرب والرجل الذي كان يحتقر العرب .. ويحتقر العروبة .. بشقيها السني والشيعي .. بنفس الدرجة والسوية ..
وفي مرحلة لاحقة كان عنوان الصحف السعودية عن صدام حسين الكافر .. وصدام حسين لم يكن بالطبع يدفع بالمشروع الشيعي بل كان يقدم دوما على أنه بطل القادسية ومن يحرس البوابة الشرقية للعرب من الطوفان الفارسي الشيعي .. ولكنه أيضا انتهى كافرا بنظر السعودية التي تدافع عن المؤمنين وأهل السنة وشنت أربعة حروب .. دفعة واحدة من أجلهم في سورية والعراق واليمن وسابقا وحاليا مقاومة لبنان ..
أين يتقاطع هؤلاء جميعا في لعبة الكلمات المتقاطعة في السياسة السعودية .. العداء لعبد الناصر .. والعداء لصدام حسين .. والتأييد لشاه ايران .. ؟؟ وكيف صار همّ المملكة اليوم هو انقاذ أهل السنة في أربع دول .. ثم كيف يتقاطع كل هذا مع العداء للرئيس بشار الأسد والتهديد باسقاطه سياسيا او عسكريا .. والتحريض على السيد حسن نصر الله بحجة أنه رأس الحرب الشيعية ؟؟..
في لعبة الكلمات المتقاطعة .. كل الكلمات السعودية تتقاطع حول كلمة واحدة هي: اسرائيل ..
الشاه صديق اسرائيل ولذا هو حاكم شرعي وصديق ..
وجمال عبد الناصر عدو اسرائيل ولذلك هو كافر وعدو ..
وكذلك صدام حسين الذي كان صديق صديق اسرائيل (أي الشاه) ووقع معه اتفاقية شط العرب وكان رئيسا مؤمنا .. تحول الى رئيس كافرعندما التفت الى اسرائيل وضربها بالصواريخ وحضّر لها المدفع العملاق والمشروع الذري العراقي ..
ثم صارالرئيس بشار الأسد والسيد حسن نصرالله كافرين ويجباسقاطهما من أجل حماية أهل السنة .. ولكن الكلمات المتقاطعة تتقاطع عند اسرائيل أيضالأنهما عدوان لدودان لاسرائيل ..
عند تحليل التاريخ السياسي لدولة لايجب اقتطاع سنة أو سنتين من عمر أي عهد أو زمن لتلك الدولة ولا تصريحات وزير خارجية ضئيل كالقط الصغير المتشرد الذي يستأسد ويستنمر ويستذئب ويستذئب ويستدبب ويستنسر .. من أجل أهل السنة .. بل يحب اجراء مقطع عمودي وأفقي لتاريخها الطويل لمعرفة جوهرها السياسي .. والا لصدقنا أن السعودية تحارب اليوم فقط من اجل أهل السنة .. الذين من أجلهم كما تدعي فانها دمرت المجتمعات السنية في أربع دول عربية وجرتها الى الحروب الطاحنة .. ولو أنها كانت تريد محاربة ايران للدفاع عن أهل السنة لكان الأولى بالشقيقة الكبرى أن توفر على أشقائها من أهل السنة في هذه الدول هذا الخراب بحجة قطع اذرع ايران .. وكان عليها أن تتبرع باعلان الحرب مباشرة على ايران رأس الشر كما تقول لتوفر على أهل السنة في الأطراف كل هذه الحروب بدل ان تطلب منهم أن يحاربوا ايران نيابة عنها ..
ولكن كل هذه الحروب ليست من أجل سني واحد بل من أجل الكلمة الضائعة في السياسة السعودية التي وجدناها أخيرا في غبار الربيع العربي ..
هل عرفتم الكلمة الضائعة في لعبة الكلمات المتقاطعة للسياسة السعودية منذ عقود؟؟
“If you quit, I quit”, an equation used by Saudis to summarize their war on neighboring Yemen, putting aside all the slogans of determination and firmness that were enameling the Kingdom’s newspapers for over 18 months. Saudis have raised the white flag, and he who declared the war on Yemen has gotten out of his box to spoke the kingdom’s desire to stop it after not only the failure to achieve its goals, but also having retroactive results.
Finally, Adel al-Jubeir uttered: “We want to stop the war,” Saudis tweeted after that: “We have lost.”
Two days ago, Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir expressed his country’s desire for a cease-fire in Yemen and knocked the ball in the court of Yemenis. Jubeir questioned the possibility of Yemeni commitment to the ceasefire in Yemen! Careful to abide by the cease-fire was nothing more than to ease the effect of the declaration of failure.
Since the beginning of the aggression on Yemen, Saudi ignored all the voices that came out to condemn the war and called for its cessation. The fall of more than 10 thousand people dead since the beginning of the aggression – according to United Nations estimates in late August didn’t embarrass the kingdom for more than 18-month period. Finding an honorable exit was the only concern for the Saudi administration, the exit that comes at the expense of the Yemenis and their blood, which saves the face of deputy crown prince in the frantic struggle to inherit the throne of his father.
Recently, New York Times published a report about Minister Mohamad bin Salman, citing information from Saudi diplomats and princes of the royal family, in which it revealed that bin Salman’s decision to go for a war on Yemen without coordinating with any of the Saudi officials, although there was a debate among them about taking an action against Yemen.
The three major security positions in the Kingdom are occupied by Defense Minister Mohamad bin Salman, Interior Minister Mohamad bin Nayef, and Minister of National Guard Mete’b bin Abdullah. Bin Salman bypassed the security positions to unilaterally take the decision of war, believing that the success of this war would secure him to inherit the throne smoothly, and would lead him to “the global stage” at an early age, according to the British daily Financial Times.
It became clear that bin Salman claimed the aggression on Yemen from the first few hours. Upon the war started, Saudi media was mentioning bin Salman’s name as a “commander of Decisive Storm as he was taking photos with Saudi fighting forces here and there. Al-Arabiya TV Channel reported that the first strikes on Yemen led by Mohamad bin Salman, but without mentioning that the Minister of National Guard Mete’b bin Abdullah was not aware of them!
Decisively, Saudi Arabia identified goals behind the war as follows:
– To restore “legitimacy” that Saudi Arabia exclusively granted to a resigned president who does not represent the people in Yemen as far as he represents the image of Saudi influence in the country.
– To withdraw Ansarullah group from the capital Sanaa and back to Saada.
– To disarm Ansarullah.
– Not to allow any role for former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen’s future.
In March 26 2015, war on Yemen was declared and strikes began on Yemeni army positions. Raids of the absurd Saudi war reached popular markets and religious and touristic places. After less than a month of the aggression, Saudi Arabia declared another campaign budding it “Restoring Hope” in order to “resume the political process” to complete the “Decisive Storm” which ended after achieving its objectives,” without defining the goals that have been achieved.
What has already been achieved?
Restoring Legitimacy
After a month of the aggression on Yemen and to this day, Saudi Arabia couldn’t manage to restore Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to Sanaa or surrounding provinces. The utmost achievement in this regard was reaching Eden province, the place from where he had fled before the offensive.
Moreover, Yemenis succeeded in lining up the Higher Political Council, which gained legitimacy to lead Yemen, presided by Saleh Al Sammad, one of the most prominent Ansarullah leaders, with his deputy Qassem Mohamad Labuza, a prominent politician in the People’s Congress party, which Saudi Arabia has pledged not to allow it to play any role in the future of Yemen.
Ansarullah: from Sanaa streets to the Saudi depth
Members of Ansarullah remained in Sanaa, and Saudi forces and its allies didn’t succeed even in confining them within the capital. Yemeni fighters who belong to the Ansarullah, the People’s Congress and other clans are still present today in Bayda’ and Lahej adjacent to Eden.
Expansion of Yemeni forces was not limited to the provinces only, but had reached the Saudi depth as Yemeni fighters managed to take control over the Saudi Al Khubah military position in Jizan. Yemeni troops stormed the Rabuah city in Assir, south of the kingdom. In late August, Popular Committees reached the outskirts of Najran province inside Saudi Arabia.
Ansarullah weapons: from Toshka to Borkan-1
What about the goal “to disarm Ansarullah”? … the answer is supported by the Saudi military assembly points and positions that are pounded daily by Yemeni Toshka and Borkan-1 rockets. In last July, Yemenis revealed a home-made Zelzal 3-type ballistic missile system, with a range up to 65 km. At the beginning of September, they announced the development of Borkan-1 missile system of a range up to 800 km, which was used in bombing Saudi Fahd Air Base in Taif.
Thus, if the Saudi kingdom did not succeed in achieving any of its objectives in aggression against Yemen, why did it launch “Restoring Hope” campaign? The announced goal of “resuming the political process” confirms that the second campaign that was announced 18 months ago, came to pave the way to stop the war in a way that saves an exit for Saudi Arabia out to be portrayed as a victory for bin Salman in his battle for the throne of his father … however, the exit didn’t appear. Saudi long war of attrition Alastzaf blow dumped the whole kingdom into the Yemeni quagmire.
What has the kingdom achieved from the war on Yemen?
After 18 months of aggression on Yemen, Saudi media reticent to mention the achievements of the Kingdom in the war. Muted Saudi media has been compensated by Saudi tweeters who commented on the recent Jubeir’s declaration in which he recalled the achievements of the Kingdom in Yemen.
Mojtahed, a Saudi activist on Twitter said: “The objectives of Decisive Storm was to take Houthis out to Saada and to hand their weapons over to the legitimate power which must return back to Sanaa, but it ended up as “if you quit, I quit.”
What Decisive Storm achieved?
– Destroying Yemen’s infrastructure.
– Killing thousands of innocent civilians.
– Draining billions of national treasury.
– Reducing salaries and stopping of bounces,” another tweet by Mojtahed read.
One of the goals made by Decisive Storm was a child dying of hunger in Yemen,” another Saudi activist tweeted.
At the beginning of Decisive Storm, Jubeir was speaking like [Georges W.] Bush when he launched Operation Desert Storm. but today, he is speaking like Mahmoud Abbas in a tone of humiliation and degradation,” Turki bin Mohamad, third Saudi activist tweeted, commenting on Jubeir’s statements.
Even today, there is no clear official figures on the number of Saudis killed by the imposed war on Yemen, but there are figures published from time to time. Four months after the start of the aggression, confidential Saudi sources revealed that the Saudi death toll reached 122 killed and about a thousand others wounded.
A New York Times report said that the Saudi toll of casualties from its war on Yemen is much more than what is declared. In late March, Mojtahed revealed that Saudi casualties from war on Yemen reached 3500 killed soldiers and 6500 wounded, in addition to 430 officers and soldiers missing.
What about the financial cost which affects heavily the economic deficit of the Kingdom. Six months after the aggression, the American “Foreign Policy” Journal revealed that Mohamad bin Salman’s war cost the Saudi treasury $ 725 billion.
On the seventh of August, the US researcher Bruce Riedel wroted an article published by The Monitor, stating that the war on Yemen will cost Saudi Arabia too much, revealing that the kingdom was ranked third in the world last year in terms of the military budget, after the United States and China. Riedel warned that a country with a population of 20 million people cannot continue endlessly with this huge military budget, especially amid falling of oil prices again.
Months of declaring war on Yemen, the Saudis was surprised by the deficit record of their budget ($ 98 million). This took the kingdom to a new era of “austerity” and affected the services provided to citizens, salaries and bonuses.
Along with strikes received by Saudi administration day after another, its tone toward Yemen was gradually retreating. One year after the start of the aggression, Saudi Defense Minister Ahmed Assiri declared that “Arab coalition leadership became convinced that the solution in Yemen would be political, through a pure national agreement between the legitimate authorities and the components of the political community, including the Houthis [Ansarullah].” This was the first Saudi statement of a kind.
The clearest expression of Saudi Arabia’s decline came by Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, who said in a tweet published in last May: “Whether we agree or disagree with the Houthis, they remain part of the social fabric of Yemen.”
Thus, the tone toward Ansarullah was turned from “rebels” and “enemies threatening the security of the kingdom” to “part of the social fabric of Yemen.” Jubeir’s statement obviously expressed his country’s desire for a ceasefire in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has lost its war on Yemen. More precisely, Mohammed bin Salman has failed in the war on Yemen, which he employed in his battle for the throne. For the sake of the throne war between the al-Saud princes, tens of thousands of victims lost their lives, and Yemen has been destroyed with a lot of its cultural landmarks. Bin Salman recruited Saudi and Arab media to incite against Yemenis, and managed to kill the conscience of millions of people who did not turn a hair before the scenes of massacres and horrible killings.
However, he did not succeed in the most important battle: the battle to bring the Yemeni bowing to take bin Salamn to power over their dead bodies.
RAMALLAH — The “overwhelming majority” of Palestinian minors held in Israel’s Megiddo and Ofer prisons have been tortured during their detention and interrogation, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said Tuesday, amid a marked increase in the incarceration and mistreatment of Palestinian children by Israel.
Lawyer for the committee Luay Ukka said in a statement that, after a visit to Ofer prison, he had noticed that the number of juvenile prisoners there had noticeably increased over the past month.
As of mid-October, he said, the number of Palestinian prisoners in Ofer under 18 years old reached 28, half of whom were under 14 years old.
According to rights group Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), Israel has also dramatically increased the use of administrative detention — internment without charge or trial — against minors.
According to DCIP, over the last year 19 Palestinian minors were administratively detained. Prior to October 2015, Israel had reportedly not held a Palestinian child from the occupied West Bank in administrative detention since December 2011.
“The overwhelming majority” of juvenile prisoners held at Ofer have been “tortured, beaten, and humiliated” during the raids carried out by Israeli forces to detain them as well as during their interrogation, according to Ukka.
Ukka also said that the majority of juvenile prisoners at Ofer prison were from Aida refugee camp and the town of al-Ubeidiya, both in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem.
Israeli soldiers detain a wounded Palestinian stone thrower after infiltrated members of the Israeli security forces shot at fellow protesters during clashes in Beit El, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on October 7, 2015. Photo by AP.
Just last week, undercover Israeli forces detained eight Palestinian children from Aida refugee camp, as residents of the camp — particularly minors — have recently been subject to an intensification of violent military raids.
Fourteen-year-old Tamir Abu Salem, who was detained about a year ago in Aida, told Ukka that the raid sparked clashes between local youth and Israeli soldiers, and that he was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet before he was taken into custody, when he was also punched in the face.
Tamir said that the bullet rifted his skull bone and that “when I breathe part of my scalp puffs up and down.”
The 14-year-old reported that the only treatment he had received from the Israel Prison Service (IPS) were occasional pain killers — a common complaint among sick and wounded Palestinian detainees as part of a deliberate policy of medical neglect by Israeli prison authorities.
Separately, Hiba Masalha, another lawyer who also works with the committee, reported in a statement on Monday that the number of juvenile prisoners at Megiddo prison had also recently increased.
“Most of the juvenile prisoners are being tortured and humiliated during detention raids,” she said, adding that Palestinian minors were also being strip-searched when they arrived to Israeli detention centres.
Who are the terrorists here, and who’s having a good laugh? Photo by Ma’an
The release of the testimonies came a day after DCIP published a report saying that at least five Palestinian minors have been imprisoned by Israel without being charged in recent months over Facebook posts that Israeli authorities alleged amounted to “incitement.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said in a September report that at least 1,000 Palestinian minors between the ages of 11 and 18 had been detained by Israel since January, a number of whom reported being abused and tortured while in detention.
According to prisoners’ rights groups Addameer, a total of 340 Palestinian minors are currently incarcerated by Israel as political prisoners.
Interrogations of Palestinian children can last up to 90 days according to Addameer, while in addition to being beaten and threatened, cases of sexual assault and placement in solitary confinement to elicit confessions are also reported, while confession documents they are forced to sign are in Hebrew — a language most Palestinian children do not speak.
Since 2013, September has for the historic village of Maaloula been a month of tragic anniversaries. Crimes and atrocities committed by Western, Gulf, Turkish and Zionist-backed terrorists there in September alone include murders, maimings, kidnappings, and the beginning of what would be the vast destruction and looting of Maaloula’s rich and unique ancient heritage.
On September 4, 2013, a Jordanian suicide-bomber exploded his truck at the Syrian army checkpoint at the arched gate outside the village. This was immediately followed by attacks on Syrian soldiers nearby, mainly by al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) terrorists—including Chechens, Uighurs, Turkestanis, Libyans, and Saudis, as well as locals.
On September 7, 2013, terrorists point-blank assassinated three unarmed Maaloula men after they refused to convert to Islam, critically injuring one of the men’s sisters.
On September 13, 2013, a group of roughly twenty Syrians, including a Maaloula local, climbed the mountains above the town in an attempt to observe the never-interrupted, nearly 1,700 year old, annual traditions of the Festival of the Holy Cross. Terrorists attacked the men, killing roughly half of them and abducting the others (1).
Although since March 2013 al-Nusra and FSA, among other terrorist factions, had occupied areas of the cliffs above and beyond the over 4,000 year old village, the September 4th attack began what would be an eight month battle by Maaloula’s defence forces, the Syrian Arab Army, and Hezbollah to liberate the village from terrorists who bombed, burned, looted, and in any way possible attempted to destroy the heritage of Maaloula.
According to Maaloula local defence soldiers, between September 4, 2013 and April 14, 2014, at least 200 soldiers of the Syrian army were killed in the battles to liberate Maaloula, including at least four who were savagely beheaded in the initial terrorist attacks. Their honourable sacrifices will not be forgotten.
The less-recognized heroes in Maaloula’s fight against terrorism were those villagers who defied terrorists’ commands or with arms resisted them, and continue to do so now.
In July 2016, I returned to Maaloula to see how life had improved since April 2014, and to hear the accounts of Maaloula’s heroic defenders and of a woman left for dead.
Testimonies of Terror and Bravery
Mikhael Taalab, a baker in nearby ‘Ayn at-Tina, Anton Taalab (Mikhael’s nephew), a shoemaker and a postman, and Serkis Zakhen a fourth year university student, were assassinated by terrorists on September 7, 2013, with the aid of treacherous local terrorists (2).
Anton’s sister Antoinette survived the attack, but is physically and mentally still wounded. Her left elbow is jointless from the grenade, which tore off flesh and bone, and while the chest bullet wound has since healed, when recounting the events, she struggled to breathe, affected by the memories. Sitting on her balcony, to a backdrop of evening calm Antoinette delivered her horror story.
“We woke up on September 7th to the voices of terrorists shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.”
As al-Nusra and FSA terrorists spread through the streets and main square of the town, at least three of the armed men passed through an iron gate, and continued up a narrow, winding path in the old quarter, reaching the home of Antoinette and Anton.
“When they arrived here, our door was closed. They broke it open and burst into the house.”
Traditional Maaloula homes have a small curtained cave off the central sitting room, used like a pantry for storing grains and other goods. When the terrorists began shooting that morning, Anton, Antoinette, her elderly near-blind and near-deaf father, her aunt, Serkis and Mikhail hid in the cave. Had the terrorists been solely outsiders, the family might have survived the attack. The terrorists went straight for the cave.
“They told us to get out, told us they would give us safety,” Antoinette recounted. “Anton, Serkis and Mikhail went outside to the balcony to plead with them and my father, aunt and I stayed in the sitting room.”
Although they knew that only women and an elderly man remained in the room, the attackers shot inside. One of the bullets ricocheted off a wall and went through Antoinette’s chest. “When I was hit, I crawled under the chest in the corner of the living room and prayed to the Virgin Mary.”
Stepping inside her home, Antoinette showed me the white-walled, timber-ceilinged sitting room where her slight father lay sleeping under the photo of his murdered son. His sole son.
The author with Antoinette Taalab, critically-injured in September 7, 2013, terrorist attacks on her home.
The tiny storage cave in which they had initially sheltered, a large window, and the sofas were all covered with the same pattern of cloth. With its small, curtained opening, the cave entrance would have been almost unnoticeable, had the attackers not already known where to look.
Antoinette recounted how lying bleeding inside the house, she heard her brother, brother-in-law, and nephew being murdered.
“The terrorists told Anton to say the Shahada. Anton told them ‘I was born Christian and I will die Christian.’,” Antoinette recalled. Mikhael and Sarkis were likewise ordered to convert to Islam, and likewise refusing, were assassinated.
At some point in the invasion, the terrorists threw a grenade into the room. “There was a bright light and I felt something hit my arm,” Antoinette recounted, grasping her destroyed elbow.
Before leaving, terrorists deliberated on bringing a gas canister into the sitting room to explode, but in the end shot at and exploded it in its kitchen location.
When four hours later local defence force soldiers—braving heavy sniper fire—reached Antoinette, she was sallow and weak.
One soldier carried Antoinette over his shoulder while running under sniper fire for about 500 metres along the old quarter’s narrow, stepped, paths. He later explained that shehad been brave and had also refused to cower to her attackers, refusing their order to go with them in return for treatment to her chest and arm wounds. He quoted her as saying: “I told them leave me alone, I’d rather die.”
Due to the heavy sniping, it was impossible for the soldiers to return for Antoinette’s father. Wounded in his hand, he and her aunt remained one day in the home, with the bodies of his son and relatives, before being reached and taken to a home nearby.
It was three days before the Syrian Arab Red Crescent could retrieve the bodies of Anton, Mikhail and Serkis, also bringing out Antoinette’s father and seven other surviving elderly residents. Terrorists kidnapped six Maaloula men on the same day. Until now their whereabouts are not known (3).
Initial Attacks
According to Maaloula advocate Abdo Haddad, the number of terrorists attacking Maaloula were far more than what was initially thought to be 400 terrorists.
“After they first attacked Maaloula, every terrorist group wanted to claim they were part of the attack. We had people from every neighbouring village attacking us, including Yabroud, Rankous, and including terrorists of Hamas, Ahrar al-Sham, Ahfad al-Rasoul, among others. These people were rewarded after they destroyed civilization,” he said, referring to how the West supplies “moderates” such as these with TOW missiles and other weapons to kill more Syrians.
Head of Maaloula City Council, Naji Wahbi, echoed what other residents said regarding the subject of local terrorists:
“The people who were in the FSA in Maaloula, we knew them personally. They were first FSA, then became al-Nusra, and some later became ISIS. The local FSA brought al-Nusra to Maaloula.”
According to Wahbi, the Syrian army did not have a presence within the village and had not for some months. “It was all civilians.”
Local defenders had until September succeeded in keeping terrorists at bay, but early on the morning of September 4th, al-Nusra and other terrorists descended from the mountaintop, first in the suicide pickup truck, then followed by a number of vehicles loaded with terrorists.
Although defence forces on guard in the village tried repeatedly to warn the Syrian soldiers at the checkpoint beyond, there was no response. One of the soldiers explained that it is believed the Syrian soldiers had been drugged or poisoned:
“On the morning of the attack, one of our Muslim families took food that was drugged to the soldiers at the checkpoint. When we saw the pickup truck going down, we shot rounds in the air to warn those at the checkpoint, but no one replied. The truck reached them and exploded.”
Abdo Haddad, further explained:
“Our defenders did everything they could to alert the soldiers at the checkpoint. They called their cell phones, their landlines, their radio. They shot five warning shots, in intervals. The soldiers—if they had been awake—should have been alarmed.”
One of the more notorious terrorists from Maaloula, Emad Diab, was the number two in command of the terrorists attacking the village, Haddad explained.
“He is also the uncle of the woman who we believe poisoned the soldiers at the checkpoint.” According to Haddad, Diab in late 2014 is believed to have used the same drugging technique, in tea, on Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah resistance at Assal al-Ward, leading to their killing or capture.
By September 7th, after days of battles against the terrorist factions, another effort was made to cleanse the village and return it to safety. Local soldiers in the old quarter largely kept the terrorists from entering, but eventually terrorists did infiltrate some areas, including their assault on the home of Antoinette and Anton.
Dr Joseph Saadeh, a dentist and also a city council member, lives in old Maaloula but was in neighbouring ‘Ayn at-Tina that day, doing what he could to defend his village.
“We were at the centre of the army commander, and we helped them with some locations. Our defenders in the old city told us the areas where the terrorists were, and we pointed them out on the map so that the army could give the coordinates to fire on the terrorists.”
The odds weren’t in the favour of the defenders of Maaloula that day. Terrorists were able to take positions in the caves above the village, and eventually to take over the village, the start of an on-off occupation which lasted until April 2014.
Maaloula defence were able, however, to escort the remaining elderly from their homes in the old quarter, through twisting narrow lanes to a drain tunnel near the Thekla convent where the most infirm were evacuated in armoured vehicles. Those remaining residents who could walk took an arduous route of walking along inside the drain until they reached the Green Valley area, which they traversed and walked about two kilometres to ‘Ayn at-Tine, Dr. Saadeh said.
The local defenders remained until after the last civilian who wanted to leave had left.
Selfless Vigilance
Directly below the cliffs of Sts Sergius & Bacchus monastery lie old Maaloula’s ancient stone and earthen homes; homes wedged in between and into rock walls. Beyond is the newer areas of the village, the fertile and treed Green Valley, and in the distance the Damascus to Homs highway. From along the cliffs above Maaloula, al-Nusra and other terrorists sniped at villagers and soldiers, and rolled tires packed with explosives onto the houses below.
During my overnight July visit, in the late afternoon one of the local defenders collected vegetables from a small garden plot below the monastery balcony, for a meal of rice, cooked zucchini and potatoes, and cucumber yogurt.
Instead of returning to their homes and lives, these men forego comfort to maintain, in shifts, a 24 hour/day vigilant watch for attempted incursions by terrorist factions as close as ten to fifteen kilometers away in different directions (4).
The blue and white Virgin Mary statue which was absent from its perch on a ledge beyond the Saffir hotel when I visited in June 2014 had been restored to its position overlooking Maaloula. Church bells, the massive 1,700 year old wooden door of Sts Sergius and Bacchus monastery, and some of the artifacts stolen from the village had also been returned.
On a street below, near the main square, a man and some children collected water from a spring. It was at that spring on September 17, 2013, that 65 year old farmer Zaki Tabib was shot in his head by a terrorist sniper. Tabib was one of about fifteen mostly-elderly villagers who had refused to evacuate a week earlier.
Abdo Haddad, also one of Tabib’s nephews, commented on the stoicness of his uncle and men like him. “These old men are so pure in their heart that they don’t believe someone in their village would kill them.”
Left bleeding on the street, the elderly man was dead by the time two courageous nephews braved a torrent of sniper fire to retrieve his body, in order to give him a proper burial.
In the evening at the monastery, in the midnight quiet, a Syrian flag fluttered softly in the breeze, and the village below glowed dimly. This quiet and calm betrayed the horrific violence and terrorism, which plagued the village just two years prior.
As I slept in one of the monastery rooms, in shifts throughout the night the local defence forces maintained their watch, protecting Maaloula.
When walking around Maaloula, an air of relative normalcy prevails, with people on the streets and some shops open—some newly opened. When I visited in July, a group of youths in the central square stood clapping, whistling and joking with each other as one skillfully played a rhythmic traditional song on a cheap tin flute.
Yet, piles of rubble lay at many corners, and gaping holes in some walls remained evidence of the near total damage to the old part of the village. Although official estimates were that 80% of the homes were damaged, Abdo Haddad pointed out that “damage” in most cases means missing entire walls, and that in fact every house in the old quarter suffered damage, from mild to entire.
Many homes were boobytrapped by terrorists, to further kill and destroy. “They rigged houses so that when someone opened the door, an electrical trigger with a small charge would detonate and explode a gas canister,” Haddad explained, saying that they could not count the number of rigged houses, maybe tens, maybe more: “The whole village was on fire. For the safety of the soldiers, in many cases the army had to blow the booby trap instead of diffusing it.”
Early on the second day of my July visit, the local soldier who had saved Antoinette poured us coffee and pulled out maps of the town and surrounding area, narrating the battles they fought to save Maaloula. Although I later learned that these men endured hardships of sleeping in winter cold without adequate coats or blankets and not daring to make fires the enemy could see, and at times survived for days on dried fruits, this soldier never mentioned the difficulties, instead speaking only of the battles and of his love for Maaloula and Syria.
We walked from the monastery to the famed gap in the mountain, a meandering path which leads to the St. Thekla convent. Cliff walls swell on either side and tower over the winding passage, a path at times narrow and at times broadening into natural amphitheatre pocketed with caves. An older man walked slowly the route he might have walked countless times. Further along, a man transported concrete blocks by donkey into the narrow pathways of the old quarter.
The church walls and dome roof of St. Thekla convent remained blackened with soot from the fires terrorists lit within. Local stone masons stood on scaffolding, patiently rebuilding the thick walls in the traditional manner. Up the long staircase above the convent, the tomb in the cliffside grotto remained sooty black but was tidied up, with a few of the icons returned until complete restoration is possible. Other icons will never be returned, destroyed or stolen by the terrorist bandits, which occupied the convent.
Some of Maaloula’s devastated houses have been rebuilt or patched up, and from the vantage of the St. Thekla grotto’s balcony, their freshly painted walls were visible, as was laundry drying on outdoor lines atop a number of homes, more evidence of life returning and persisting in Maaloula.
The Institute for Aramaic Language, a two-story building which terrorists looted and destroyed, was in July ready to re-open, according to Naji Wahbi, with programs for all ages, as well as for foreigners wwanting to study the language.
Abdo Haddad noted that Maaloula’s elementary school is functioning mainly thanks to a number of young women who have for the past two years been teaching without salaries. “They are qualified but not officially accredited as teachers in the public sector. Had it not been for them, the school would have been closed.”
On September 7, 2016, villagers came together as they have every year since 2013 to honour the martyrs of three years prior. Close friends met early in the morning near the graves of Anton, Serkis and Mikhail, to share coffee and their memories. They brought with them three extra cups, for their fallen friends, and quiet solidarity for one anothes’s unspoken pain.
The afternoon saw Maaloula honouring the martyrs, with a procession which stopped at intervals to pray for their local protectors and the Syrian army, to pray for the kidnapped villagers and for the martyrs, and finally, to pray at the Virgin Mary statue above the village that peace would return to Syria.
For the third year renewed, on September 13th, Maaloula celebrated the Festival of the Holy Cross, observing traditions dating to 326 AD.
*From Maaloula History Facebook page, celebrating the Festival of the Holy Cross.
Epilogue
Maaloula is still rebuilding, and much of its population is still displaced, but the people of Maaloula are not defeated. They cling tenaciously to their history and culture, and fight as tenaciously for their future.
Maaloula advocate Abdo Haddad emphasized how this fight is not only for his village and people, but for Syria.
“This formidable people who resisted tyranny, persecution and oppression, those are the people of Maaloula, of Syria. This is not about Christians versus Muslims, this is about defenders fighting for their people, country, futures.”
It is thanks to these heroes and their Syrian Arab Army soldiers and allies that future generations will carry on the language and traditions of the ancient village.
This continued and unwavering defence is emblematic of the defence waged by Syrians all over Syria.
_____________________
(1) Information on the September 13 murders and kidnappings is from a Maaloula defence soldier.
(2) These accounts are corroborate by various Maaloula residents and defenders.
(3) These accounts are corroborate by various Maaloula residents and defenders.
(4) According to Maaloula defence soldiers.
fighting against the worst conceivable terrorism for their lives and for Syria.
[ Ed. note – Couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this story. The offer from the Russians obviously couldn’t have come at a better time. The current media uproar over Trump’s remarks about not accepting the election results (unless he wins) is only one spot on the giraffe, of course. The other awkwardness to muse upon is the US government’s history of making sanctimonious demands for Western observers to monitor elections in other countries–but of course now, with it’s own elections being seriously called into question, it refuses such an offer from Russia. ]
The US has rejected a Russian proposal to send diplomats to monitor the upcoming presidential elections and some states have even threatened to bring criminal charges against any that appear at ballot stations, Russian election officials reported Thursday.
Sources in the Central Elections Commission have told Izvestia daily that its representatives held a series of talks with the US State Department to discuss sending a delegation of monitors to US polling stations on November 8. US officials categorically rejected even the possibility of such a mission, however, instead recommending that Russia join the international mission of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
The request was also rejected on a state level, and in three states – Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas – officials used “very harsh formulas” to do so, the sources said. “In violation of all principles of democracy and international monitoring, in Texas they even threatened to hold monitors who appear at ballot stations criminally responsible,” they added.
The head of the Central Election Commission’s department for international relations, Vasily Likhachev told Interfax that the Russia could not go along with the suggestion to use ODIHR mission because participating in it would involve additional restrictions against visiting polling stations in some US states.
He also said that Russian experts planned to conduct “remote” monitoring of US polls “in spite of all the obstructions and complications” by analyzing reports from mass media and the internet, as well as other data received through open channels. The Central Elections Commission already has practice doing this, as it conducted such observations during the last US presidential election in 2012, he added.
Earlier this year, Russia sent personal invitations to US monitors asking them to observe the September parliamentary elections, and 63 accepted the offer. In total, 774 monitors from 63 nations received accreditation to observe Russia’s parliamentary elections. In addition, US representatives visited Russia earlier as part of an OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights’ monitoring mission.
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