dead and the funerals become new funerals: every time the Syrians mourn a martyr another martyr falls, and thatâs the way funerals drag along behind them⦠more funerals.
I get a call from a broadcaster friend, and I ask her if we can meet.
The brutality of the regime knows no bounds. It does not remain neutral towards the people here; it creates beasts in its own image out of ordinary people who might have been neighbours instead. Even more dangerous was the fact that the fundamentals of humanity and the ABCs of life have been eviscerated from the hearts of many people here. State television destroys human compassion, the sort of fundamental empathy that is not contingent upon a political or even a cultural orientation, and through which one human being can relate to another. The al-Dunya channel stirs up hatred, broadcasts false news and maligns any opposing viewpoint. I wasnât the only one subjected to internet attacks by the security services and the Baâthists, even if the campaign against me may be fiercer because I come from the Alawite community and have a lot of family connections to them â because I am a woman and itâs supposedly easier to break me with rumours and character assassination and insults. Some of my actress friends who expressed sympathy for the children of Darâa and called for an end to the siege of the city were subjected to a campaign of character assassination and called traitors, then forced to appear on state television in order to clarify their position. Friends who expressed sympathy for the families of the martyrs would get insulted, they would be called traitors and accused of being foreign spies. People became afraid to show even a little bit of sympathy for one another, going against the basic facts of life, the slightest element of what could be called the laws of human nature â that is, if we indeed agree that sympathy is part of human nature in the first place.
Moral and metaphorical murder is being carried out as part of a foolproof plan, idiotic but targeted, stupid yet leaving a mark on peopleâs souls. I recorded an interview with one of my friends who used to work for Syrian state television. The poor girl had been conducting a kind of schizophrenic life, torn between what she saw with her own eyes and what she was involved in disseminating on television. She agreed to grant me an interview as long as I do not mention her name, no matter what, not now, not ever, and I agreed. Here is her testimony:
âOfficial media discourse has divided the Syrian people into two camps: with or against. This means that even if youâre a demonstrator who hasnât been accused of being involved with the armed gangs then youâre a traitor. For example, when news is reported of people being martyred âby the monstrous hands of treachery,â we in the media know that such expressions are only used when weâre talking about Israel/Palestine. The last time was in Gaza. When a son is forced to publicly disown his father on the al-Dunya network for being in the opposition, this hits the core of human feelings. Meeting with the families of the martyrs, all the weeping and wailing, the horrifying and soul-destroying pictures of the military dead, without showing comparable images of dead civilians, all of this creates awful hatred among the people, and people everywhere have started saying, âMay God never forgive them.â
âState media gives voice to these emotions, then militarizes them. There is the focus on militaristic, jingoistic anthems and love for the homeland, which only ever means love for the president. Unfortunately, most calls in from the people are love poems to the president. One time, a little girl recited a love poem for the president live on air. I asked her, âSweetie, why do you love the president?â The little girl was silent for a few moments. She didnât respond so the guests we had on, who
I get a call from a broadcaster friend, and I ask her if we can meet.
The brutality of the regime knows no bounds. It does not remain neutral towards the people here; it creates beasts in its own image out of ordinary people who might have been neighbours instead. Even more dangerous was the fact that the fundamentals of humanity and the ABCs of life have been eviscerated from the hearts of many people here. State television destroys human compassion, the sort of fundamental empathy that is not contingent upon a political or even a cultural orientation, and through which one human being can relate to another. The al-Dunya channel stirs up hatred, broadcasts false news and maligns any opposing viewpoint. I wasnât the only one subjected to internet attacks by the security services and the Baâthists, even if the campaign against me may be fiercer because I come from the Alawite community and have a lot of family connections to them â because I am a woman and itâs supposedly easier to break me with rumours and character assassination and insults. Some of my actress friends who expressed sympathy for the children of Darâa and called for an end to the siege of the city were subjected to a campaign of character assassination and called traitors, then forced to appear on state television in order to clarify their position. Friends who expressed sympathy for the families of the martyrs would get insulted, they would be called traitors and accused of being foreign spies. People became afraid to show even a little bit of sympathy for one another, going against the basic facts of life, the slightest element of what could be called the laws of human nature â that is, if we indeed agree that sympathy is part of human nature in the first place.
Moral and metaphorical murder is being carried out as part of a foolproof plan, idiotic but targeted, stupid yet leaving a mark on peopleâs souls. I recorded an interview with one of my friends who used to work for Syrian state television. The poor girl had been conducting a kind of schizophrenic life, torn between what she saw with her own eyes and what she was involved in disseminating on television. She agreed to grant me an interview as long as I do not mention her name, no matter what, not now, not ever, and I agreed. Here is her testimony:
âOfficial media discourse has divided the Syrian people into two camps: with or against. This means that even if youâre a demonstrator who hasnât been accused of being involved with the armed gangs then youâre a traitor. For example, when news is reported of people being martyred âby the monstrous hands of treachery,â we in the media know that such expressions are only used when weâre talking about Israel/Palestine. The last time was in Gaza. When a son is forced to publicly disown his father on the al-Dunya network for being in the opposition, this hits the core of human feelings. Meeting with the families of the martyrs, all the weeping and wailing, the horrifying and soul-destroying pictures of the military dead, without showing comparable images of dead civilians, all of this creates awful hatred among the people, and people everywhere have started saying, âMay God never forgive them.â
âState media gives voice to these emotions, then militarizes them. There is the focus on militaristic, jingoistic anthems and love for the homeland, which only ever means love for the president. Unfortunately, most calls in from the people are love poems to the president. One time, a little girl recited a love poem for the president live on air. I asked her, âSweetie, why do you love the president?â The little girl was silent for a few moments. She didnât respond so the guests we had on, who
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