Beirut, Lebanon—Chain smoking next to his living room window in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp, Khaledre called the beginning of Syria’s uprising. A 21-year-old Palestinian from Yarmouk, a refugee camp established in 1948 to house Palestinians who fled their homes during the Arab/Israeli war, he says his father physically restrained him from participating in demonstrations against the regime.
“He locked me in the house,”Khaled told The Media Linewhile stroking his short beard and curly moustache. “He told me that Palestinians are guests in Syria and that this isn’t our struggle.”
Protests continued unabated for months. And as regime repression of the rebels intensified, the uprising soon became weaponized. On July 29,2011, defectors from the Syrian National Armymobilized to protect demonstrators under the banner ofthe Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Since Palestinians received more rights in Syria than any other Arab country — by way of a law enacted in 1957 before the rise of the Baathist regime –most wanted to maintain neutrality as the conflict unfolded. But after the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad bombedYarmouk on December 16, 2012, opposition and Al-Qa’ida-linked groupsseized the opportunity to enter the camp.
Yarmouk was now militarized andcivilian casualties mounted.But whileKhaled’s friends joinedthe rebel ranks, he left behindthe only home he knew. That December,hefled with his family to Shatila, a Palestinian enclave in south Beirutcontrolled by the Shia Hizbullah (Party of God) movement.
In mid-2012, Hizbullah entered Syria, ostensibly to safeguard a regime that was vital in supporting its operations in the region.Once thought of as the ‘axis of resistance’ against Israel, their intervention, coupled with their ally’s brutal siege on Yarmouk, has damagedthe movement’spopularity among Palestinians from Syria.
Abu Ameen, a 40-year-old Palestinian who also escaped from Syria in December 2012, says that though he’s openlypledged support to Hizbullah, he’s merely done so to avoid confrontationunder their governance.
“We are afraid to talk about them here,” whispered Abu Ameen, while cleaning his eye glasses in a small bedroom in Shatila. “Many of us don’t trust Hizbullah anymore.”
In August 2013, tensions between Hizbullah and Palestinians surfaced in Lebanon after the groupshot and killed a man who refused to stop at a checkpointin the Palestinian enclave of Burj Al-Burajneh. The incident took place just days after a car bomb killed 30 civilians in a predominantly Shia-populated area nearby. The bombingwaspart of a larger sequenceof attacks that year in retaliation toHizbullah’sinvolvement in Syria.
Sahar Atrache, a senior analyst for International Crisis Group (ICG) in Lebanon, says that Hizbullah’sintervention transformed their image and antagonized previous supporters. By branding anyone fighting the Syrian regime as ‘Sunni extremists,’ the groupjustified itsinvolvementthrough a dogmatic rhetoric.
“The group is no longer widely considered the axis of resistance, even if they claim to be,” said Atrache.
Those close to the group insist otherwise. Historically framing their movement as a struggle against oppression,Hizbullah’sdeclining popularity among Palestinians is of symbolic importance. Heba, a journalist for a pro-Hizbullah Lebanese newspaper, says Palestinians who no longer support the movement are compromising the ‘resistance’ against Israeli occupation.
“They are traitors,”Heba told The Media Line. “We supported their struggle against Israel for 30 years, but now many have turned against us.”
“Hizbullah is supporting a regime that’s starving our people,” said Khaled, as he turned towards the window to stare at Shatila’s garbage-ridden streets beneath him.
Yarmouk has become the latest icon in the history of Palestinian suffering.The regime’s total siegehas starvednearly 250 peopleto death. And though more than18,000 Palestinians remain trapped in crumbled buildings without water and electricity, the crisis has received little coverage in pro-Hizbullah media outlets.
The arrival of Sunni hardline fighters in the middle of 2013further complemented Hezbollah’s effort in discreditingthe popular uprising. Promoting their intervention as a fight to protect minorities, the movement’s rhetoric has intensified sectarian divisions and exaggerated Israeli’s presence in the conflict.
Although Israel has provided medical assistance to rebels and civilians in the Golan Heights,Hizbullah-affiliated channels haveaccused them of militarily backing jihadists in Syria.WhileHizbullah’s most devoted supportershave absorbed this narrative, others have questioned the truth of these reports.
Raed, a former television presenterfor the pro-Hizbullah channel ‘Etejah’ (Direction), says such claims never had any basis.
“Hizbullah’s narrative is that the ISIS project is benefiting Israel but nobody in the news room received any indication that this was true,” Raed told TML.
“They are lying,” whispered Abu Ameen.“Hizbullah is fighting in the name of Palestine but they don’t care about us.”
Deepening sectarian rifts have divertedHizbullah’s attention from Israel to Syria. Theirinterference has prevented the fall of Damascusand redefined its image. By helping the regime crush the Syrian rebellion and using sectarian rhetoric, the movement hasalienated themselves from the very people for whom it purports to fight.
Unable to ignore the brutality imposed on Yarmouk, many Palestinians from Syria have lost faith in the ‘axis of resistance’ they once supported.
“I respected Hizbullah before the war,” said Khaled, while crushing the stub of his cigarette in his ashtray. “Now I realize they’re just a movement for Shias.”