Propaganda: Love and Suspicion

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Cristina De Middel has posted the following series on Syrian propaganda in support of Lebanon during the Israeli invasion earlier this year. Lebanon, as Middel notes, has found itself a victim of both neighbors.

Syria has been traditionally placed on target of international suspicions. Assad´s government support to Hezbollah is largely blessed by a population that does not hesitate showing moral and economic backing to the militia. The streets of Damascus, literally walpapered with official propaganda, became a graphic example of this feeling of solidarity with what they called their “lebanese brothers” during the last conflict and the weeks that followed the cease-fire. However relationships between Syria and Lebanon cannot exactly be resumed in terms of simpathy which is probably the reason why communications between their capitals was hence placed as a concrete target for Israeli bombing. While in Damascus people were actively showing and cheering their brotherhood with Lebanese refugees, some voices from Beirut replied: “Now it´s Israel, but before it was Syria” aluding to the 30 year military occupation of the country. None the less, the truth is that for one month Syria became a double-sided host country. While Iraqis kept on flowing through the border and finding in Syria the medical support that Iraq is no longer capable of providing, a new gash on the west border was squeezing thousands of Lebanese refugees into a country almost collapsed and with few NGO's there to help deal with the situation.

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