Dec 16, 2015

Photos from Syria: Life in Homs

Eva Bartlett, a Gazan writer and photographer, posts from Homs in Syria :

Old Homs: destroyed shops and restaurants re-opened, life returning to the heart of Homs, cleansed last year of the terrorists who targeted civilian and commercial places. Some shops open for a few months now, other more recently–the fruit and vegetable shop opened 5 days ago.

Yesterday [December 15], in Homs, I visited the Zahra district where a December 12 car bombing (Red Crescent vehicle) killed 22 residents and injured at least 140 injured–many of whom critically so. This was apparently one of the largest terrorist bombings in Homs in the last 5 years, according to Syrian media.

What corporate media failed to report was that it was not just one blast, but 3: the initial car bombing; the explosion of a gas truck which the car had parked near to; the suicide bombing some hours later of the attacker who returned to blow himself up, killing at least 3 police and 2 soldiers who had come to the bombed area.

Corporate media also neglected to tell the human side of this atrocity, to show the children who were maimed, or speak with the siblings of those murdered. The proud, resilient people of Homs told me they would not be broken by these terrorist attacks. They also welcomed me into the mourning tents and rooms where tired, sad survivors of the attacks recounted their stories and losses, and in spite of their grief, welcomed me as a guest.

MSM also painted the neighbourhood as an “Alawite” area, not noticing that, according to the Homs journalist with me yesterday, as all over Syria, there are IDPs of various faiths in that neighbourhood. The depicting of Zahra merely as “an Alawite” district is in line with MSM’s sectarian project, one which Syrians refuse.

MSM reports also did not highlight that Zahra and surrounding neighbourhoods have been repeatedly subject to these terrorists bombings.

Visiting other churches in the Old City, their simple Christmas trees and decorations. One tree was poignantly decorated with the photos of martyred Christian soldiers from the area.