Alhakam Shaar

I found your and Layla al-Shami's book fantastic! Days of Love and Rage must be great if you find it so!

What will it take for Syrians to return to Aleppo after years of war? Syria's government is trying to rebuild Aleppo, but war and neglect have made it a daunting prospect.

A bit about my recent stay in Aleppo in this piece by @justinsalhani.bsky.social.

More than 30 experts and contributors came together to make sense of identity-based mass violence (IBMV) in cities. We produced a book. I contributed a chapter on the cycles of structural and acute violence in modern Aleppo.

Register to attend the launch:
weavinginfluence.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Youssef al-Labbad, a Syrian defector returned from Germany, died under torture after his arrest near the Umayyad Mosque. Calls mount for justice, accountability, and returnee protection.

#Syria #Justice

Open the Gates to Save a Starving Gaza | International Crisis Group As ceasefire talks drag on, Gaza is tipping from mass starvation toward mass death. Israel must allow assistance in immediately. But that step alone will not save the strip’s depleted population. Gaza...

Israel is starving Gaza, tipping the strip from mass starvation towards mass death.

The lack of a ceasefire provides no excuse for this policy. War is no licence to starve.

www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee passed a bill to amend the Caesar Act, tying sanction relief to Syria’s human rights compliance. Waivers may extend to 2 years, with full repeal by 2029 if conditions are met.
#Syria #CaesarAct #USCongress #Sanctions #HumanRights

We are starving My body is breaking down. My mother is collapsing from exhaustion. My cousin cheats death every day for a morsel of aid.

"My body is breaking down. My mother is collapsing from exhaustion. My cousin cheats death every day for a morsel of aid. Gaza's children are dying in front of our eyes, and we are powerless to help them."

@972mag.com Ruwaida Amer writes from Khan Younis, Gaza >>
www.972mag.com/hunger-gaza-...

Zainspirowany rekonstrukcją warszawskiej starówki uchodźca z Aleppo chce odbudować swoje miasto | UNHCR Poland Al-Hakam Shaar wychowywał się w zabytkowym domu na terenie starówki w Aleppo. Dom został starannie odrestaurowany przez jego ojca, który interesował się tradycją i architekturą. Teraz po siedmiu latac...

And in Polish!
www.unhcr.org/pl/wiadomo%C...

Sadly UNHCR removed the original 2018 English language piece by Helen (I think due to an EU law asserting "the right to be forgotten"), but here it is in Hungarian!
www.unhcr.org/hu/4882-szul...

Backpacks and Suitcases-9 Reporting the Stories of People in Flight

7 years ago in Budapest, veteran journalist Helen Womack (now I proudly call her friend) interviewed me for UNHCR about The Aleppo Project and my family home in Aleppo. 7 weeks ago, after the fall of Assad, she reached out to ask me if I'd finally been back to Aleppo and if we can rebuild our house.

Key details:
In a UN Security Council session on Syria, the United Nations warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis. It highlighted the widespread need for aid and the ongoing displacement of seven million people.

Key details:
France announced last February its intention to invite Al-Sharaa for an official visit, but made it conditional on forming a Syrian government that includes “representatives of all components of civil society” and provides “security guarantees for refugee return”.

Another child killed by starvation. There is a video and it is excruciating to watch. Israel has blocked all aid, including food and medicine, for over 60 days. What we have here is the profundity of evil.

في إدانة المجازر والانتهاكات بحق العلويين-ات السوريين-ات بيان إلى الرأي العام

I was happy to sign this. Sectarian violence is an even greater security threat to the new Syria than Zionist aggression. aljumhuriya.net/ar/2025/04/1...

هذا اللقاء، الخامس للقاء العمران، له فرادة أنه مع أحد أجمل باحثي التراث وأقربهم لقلبي وقلوب الكثير من باحثي العمران والتاريخ، البروفيسور ناصر رباط. شكراً صديقتي زويا @zoyamasoud.bsky.social على دعوة أ. رباط وعلى التسيير.
اللقاء بالعربية، غداً السبت، والتسجيل هنا:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Malik al-Abdeh's analysis of Sharaa's governance record is damning. And his pleas are nothing but the plainest of common sense: serious reforms, emphasis on effective governance, openness to different constituencies by giving them a stake in the new state.
www.syriaintransition.com/swallowingth...

دعوة مفتوحة لأهل الاختصاص للحوار
إعادة إعمار سوريا:
الحقوق، الهوية، والحوكمة
رابط المشاركة في الحوار يوم الخميس ٢٦ /١٢ /٢٠٢٤ الساعة الوحدة بعد الظهر بتوقيت دمشق:
t.co/CsuJ9VaVQ3

Raed Fares looks at the camera with a relaxed smile, holding a cigarette in his right hand and wearing a yelow t-shirt.

Dr Razan Ghazzawi: “I took this📸of Raed Fares in Idlib in 2013. Raed initiated the ‘Kafranbel Banners’ … Raed & Hammoud Jneid were assassinated on Nov 23, 2018. Many believe HTS was behind it. HTS needs to address all violations committed under its control in Idlib.”
x.com/queerexile/s...

Insurgent Resurgence: A Discussion about the Current Developments in Syria | Program on Extremism | The George Washington University Featuring insights from Alhakam Shaar, Wathiq Alshallal, and Jerome Drevon. Senior Fellow, Sergio Altuna will moderate it.

Sign up to attend this online panel discussion at George Washington University. It starts at 4pm Berlin time. I will talk about what the fall of Assad means from the perspective of Aleppo.

I understand there are priorities of providing basic services and reflecting the celebration of the people, but now is the time to ask those tough questions, or the hope for democracy and true representation might slip away from us.

And I've watched many interviews with the interim prime minister or other HTS leaders and none asked about the constitution, work with other political and community groups and elections.

reached out to known former detainees or family members or associations of the forcibly disappeared for comment.

Mini thread 🧵

The media, Arab and western alike, are not prepared for the fall of the regime and the shallowness of their coverage is just sad. Very few of those reporting on the prisons read up reports on (e.g. by Forensic Architecture & Amensty Intl) that are based on witness accounts, or

Syria: Assad's police threatened to bury me and my reporting. Now I'm back, and free The BBC's Lina Sinjab - who fled Damascus 2013 as it was engulfed in war – reflects on her return to the city.

“Assad’s police threatened to bury me and my reporting. Now I’m back, and free”

BBC correspondent Lina Sinjab returns to Syria
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Insurgent Resurgence: A Discussion about the Current Developments in Syria | Program on Extremism | The George Washington University Featuring insights from Alhakam Shaar, Wathiq Alshallal, and Jerome Drevon. Senior Fellow, Sergio Altuna will moderate it.

Join us next Thursday at 10:00 am ET (16:00 CET) to talk about the latest developments in #Syria with a line-up of distinguished panelists: @jeromed.bsky.social, @alhakam.bsky.social and Mr. Wathiq Alshallal.

Register here!
extremism.gwu.edu/insurgent-re...

Israel is grabbing more land in the Golan. The Golan is for its people. Its homes are for those expelled from them, whether by Israel in 1967 or by Assad and Hezbollah since 2011.

Israel is grabbing Syrian terretory.

Israel has illegally taken the following Syrian towns:
- Ofaniya
- Quneitra
- Al-Hamidiyah
- Samdaniya Al Gharbiyah
- Qahtaniya

The IDF chief of staff: “IDF is fighting in four arenas - in ‘Judea and Samaria’, in Gaza, in Lebanon and, starting tonight, in Syria as well.” 1/