For Immediate Release

Washington DC – July 15, 2009 –  Sunday, a ministerial law committee, endorsed the revival of a Bill that would, if passed, guarantee parliamentary approval, or a national referendum, to allow the Golan to be repatriated back to Baschar al-Assad.

RPS supports the Golan Bill because we believe that the Golan Heights belong to the Syrian people and not to Assad. And since the people of Syria have no say in any future peace agreement between Assad and Israel, we stand united against such agreement. Only the people of Syria, through full and free representation, can decide what international agreements their country enters into and how their lands are repatriated.

A peace agreement between Assad and Israel will also have wide repercussions in the Arab world. Assad will be viewed as a hero for forcing Israel to return Syria’s lands while he continues to “resist” development and prosperity. This, in turn, will usher a new era of darkness as every dictator follows suit by establishing resistance to something or the other and setting his mediocrity as the glass ceiling for the people to always stand below.

Furthermore, the US administration of president Obama has been particularly insensitive to the plight of the Syrian people as it pressures the State of Israel to commit to a peace we know will only increase the oppression of twenty million people in Syria by a certifiable violent dictator. We urge this administration to rethink its policy of shoring-up violent dictators at the expense of their people.

As far as we Syrians are concerned, there is no difference between supporting Apartheid in the seventies and supporting Assad in the beginning of a new millennium. In both cases, a violent minority is subjecting the majority to harrowing oppression and violating the rule of law.