The test for the day after will be the removal of the Iranians from the Syrian border

Article DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25055.27046

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the Middle East tracker’s editorial stance.

The test for the day after will be the removal of the Iranians from the Syrian border

© Copyright Glen Segell 2024

The test is not the paper, but the activity on the ground. In Israel they say that the test for the memorandum of understanding on Syria will be the implementation of the removal of the Iranians from the border - this was published this morning (Monday) in the morning newspaper Bekan network 2. "The test is not the paper, but the activity on the ground," said a senior Israeli official following the signing of the agreement between the United States and Russia regarding the future of Syria.

In Israel, they are particularly concerned about the void that will be created in the country, into which, it is claimed, Iran is entering. The memorandum of understanding outlining the day after the civil war in Syria. It includes an appendix that explicitly defines the geographical space in the Golan Heights area - according to which the Iranians will be removed from the border, according to a certain formula, up to about 20 km. The Israeli concern concerns the question of how that agreement will be implemented.

Not all of Israel's demands were met in full. For example, it was determined that "non-Syrian" elements will be removed from the border, which opens the door for questions in the future. In addition, it seems that to the dismay of Israeli officials, whoever will be entrusted with the supervision of what is happening near the border will be the Russians.

That is why in Israel they held several meetings in the recent period in an attempt to influence the details of the agreement. Meir Ben Shabat, head of the National Security Council, visited the United States and Russia. So is the head of the strategic division in the IDF, Brigadier General Ram Yavne, who was in Russia.

In Israel, the issue of implementing the agreement is expected to be raised in the working meetings held between the armies and in coordination between the security systems. Therefore, in Israeli eyes, the importance of the Russian actor is expected to increase in the near future.

The former defense minister, MK Amir Peretz (Zionist camp), said that "the tripartite agreement between the US, Russia and Jordan places Iranian forces only five kilometers from the border. This is a real danger to Israel's security and regional stability in general. The prime minister must use all political and other tools to keep the Shiite axis away from Israel's borders.'

MK Maj. Gen. (resp.) Eyal Ben Reuven (Zionist camp), a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that the agreement "does not provide an answer to the Iranization process that is developing on our northern border. Iran in Syria and Hezbollah in the Golan Heights are a recipe for an unnecessary campaign in the north."

MK Ksenia Svetlova (the Zionist camp) said that "Iran has long-term interests in Syria - and one of them is harming the existential security of the State of Israel. In the future we will not be able to rely on this agreement and ignore the danger. The big question is whether the signed agreement will limit Israel's actions on Syrian soil.

In Syria and Israel, the fear of the enemy is the foundation of national education

The role of the teacher who arrives in a remote Kurdish village in northeastern Syria in the movie "Neighbors" is to erase the Kurdish identity of his students and replace it with Arab nationalism. The example of the teacher, who preaches unity and violence against a straw enemy, is precisely Zionist education

This week I watched the movie "Neighbors" by the Swiss Kurdish director (refugee from Syria), Manu Khalil. The story of the film is focused on the first year of school of the boy Seru, in a remote Kurdish village in northeastern Syria.

The opening credits of the teacher in the Syrian school in the film are strikingly similar to those of the teacher in Bhutan, in the film "Lonana There's a Yak in the Classroom", which I wrote about recently (both films are available on Partner TV). In both cases, the educated teacher, from the big capital city, was sent by the government to provide basic education to rural girls and boys, living in a marginal, remote and disconnected world.

Red card for civic education in Israel

But the purpose of education in both schools is completely different. The teacher in Bhutan is required to help children "be more than yak herders and mushroom pickers". That is, to allow them to advance beyond what is available to them in the present. The teacher in Syria, on the other hand, is required to suppress their culture and language (Kurdish), and recruit them into the ranks of the Arab nation. That is, he must make them something other than what they are.

The Syrian teacher's main tool is fear. Again and again he describes and illustrates in the class an imaginary enemy, terrible and cruel, against which the children have only one way out: to unite. Wracked with anxiety and crying, most of the children internalize the nation's order. Only a few, such as Manu Khalil, the filmmaker, manage to break free in their adulthood and realize that during all this time - the teacher was their real enemy.

We often compare the Jewish fate with the Kurdish fate, as two persecuted peoples. But in this film, the simile of the Syrian teacher is precisely the Zionist education, gripped by the message of unity, in the face of imaginary enemies plotting our destruction. After all, what would be left of our education, without the unifying fear of annihilation?

Cinema as a political weapon

Mano Khalil, the screenwriter and director of the film, was born in 1964 in a Kurdish village near the city of Qamishli, in northeastern Syria. The Kurdish homeland was then separated by border fences between Syria and Turkey, so his childhood experience was that of a persecuted minority, between two oppressive armies.

In 1987 he went to study literature and cinema in Czechoslovakia (before the fall of the Soviet Union). In an interview from 2015, Khalil said that for him cinema is a political act, where "the camera replaces the gun" in order to continue the battle.

When he returned to Syria, he created the documentary "The Place where God Sleeps", about the life of the Kurds in northern Syria. The government in Damascus began to persecute him and restrict his freedom of action, until in 1996 he emigrated as a refugee to Switzerland, where he lives to this day.

The movie "Neighbors" is told about one year in the life of a boy named Sero, the son of Khalil. The plot of the film is full of tragedies, pain and sorrow, and unfolds the story of the persecuted Kurdish people. The description of the first year of school at the local rural school fits well into the sad atmosphere of the film.

"As little children they educated us to be slaves," Khalil said in an interview with the release of the film. "The schools were run like military camps, where we were taught to hate and despise. Their motto was like that of any dictator: the longer people remain ignorant, backward and enslaved, the longer we can control them." to free from darkness and ignorance

On the first day of school, the teacher introduces himself and the goals of his mission to the children of the village: 18 students, in one multi-age class. "My name is Wahid Hanof. I came to this backward village with one goal, to free you from darkness and ignorance. Therefore, from this day on, you must learn the Arabic language, feel in Arabic, love in Arabic, think and speak in Arabic, here [in the classroom] and at home with your parents. We only have one language One. No other language exists in our Arab world."

The promo for the movie "Neighbors":

Also the teacher Ogain, in the movie "Lonana there is a yak in the class", introduces himself to his students in the first lesson. But in addition, he asks each and every student to present their names and dreams. He is interested in their existence, which the teacher mocked in the movie "Neighbors", does not assume that it is his job at all.

Teacher Ogain teaches English, as a language that is a gateway to global culture. However, English is another level above the local language and culture, and in no way replaces them. On the other hand, the teacher Hanof places Arabic as the only possible language. The erasure of the Kurdish language is of course also the erasure of the identity of the children's families.

Whose future is it, the children or the government?

Teacher Hanof continues and explains to his students: "I will do everything for your future. I love children, because the children are the torchbearers of our revolution. As our leader Hafez Assad said: He who holds the children holds the future."

In Bhutan, the teacher Ugain is interested in why the villagers respect him so much. The neighbor explains to him that this is because "the teacher touches the children's future". We do not know where the future will lead each girl and boy, but it is education that opens up possibilities and paths for them. The teacher, then, is a messenger of an unknown future, and he gives children keys to shape their own future.

The Syrian teacher uses similar words, but with the opposite intention. As can be understood from the proverb: "He who owns the children owns the future", the ruler wants to control the future through the children. The teacher is a messenger of the government, and his job is to shape the young generation in such a way that the future will also be in line with the ruler's vision, and will remain under his control.

In order to "possess the children", the Syrian teacher scares his students against a terrible enemy who wants to destroy them. An enemy never seen or experienced: imperialism and Zionism. Shocked with horror, the children try to understand what it is about. One of them explains from his imagination that imperialism is dangerous poisonous scorpions that live under the houses.

The teacher adds and tells about the Jews, who used to lure small children to make cakes from their blood for their holidays. The boy who "knows" swears that this is indeed what happened in a neighboring village. The young Sero was frightened, as a Jewish family lives next door to his parents. When the mother of the family offers him a slice of cake she baked for Shabbat, he runs away with it.

The teacher Hanof brings to the class a straw doll representing the enemy. "What will we do with the Jews?" the teacher asks, and the students answer from their wildest imaginations: I will stab them with a knife, I will burn them alive, I will throw them into the sea so that the sharks will eat them. "Very beautiful" the teacher sums up the lesson.

And what is the lesson? In the morning order, the apprentice on duty calls out: "Are you ready to build the united Arab society and defend it?". "In our hearts and souls, we are always ready!", the students call out in response.

What would your life look like without an enemy?

In an article published in the first source about the movie "Neighbors", it is written that the movie represents "the story of the shared fate of the Jews and the Kurds". In doing so, they obviously missed the lesson of the film.

At the climax of the film, after the teacher demands that the children of the village stab the straw doll of the enemy with a knife, one of the village elders defiantly asks him: "What will your life look like without Israel as an enemy?". The teacher is offended and becomes silent.

If you want to see a parable in a movie, the parable of Kurdistan that was erased from the world map is not Israel, but rather Palestine. And the simile of the Syrian teacher, who preaches unity and violence against an imaginary straw enemy, is precisely Zionist education.

Glen Segell (DPhil) is Director, London Security Policy Study