Che Guevara in the Middle East

The support for Hizballah here in Damascus is, not surprisingly, quite strong. Hizballah is seen as a group fighting for Arab rights against American and Israeli designs to control the region. Although there is not as much popular support for the Syrian government and the system it implements, the President himself also garners support for his foreign policy stance against what is seen as American bullying. So I wasn’t at all taken aback by the prevalence of Hizballah signs, flags, posters, and graffiti that I have seen around Damascus.

I was more amused by the popularity of older revolutionary symbols that are found side-by-side Hizballah paraphernalia. Che Guevara’s struggling face is seen juxtaposed with Nasrallah around the city, and his likeness can be found displayed on its own as well, hanging from a balcony, or on a young man’s t-shirt.

Old City souq.

I walked into a shop in the Old City that was selling Hizballah t-shirts to ask them about the phenomenon. The shop owner and his two friends sitting inside explained to me that “Every generation has a hero. Che was from the older generation, and now this generation has found theirs.” “Nasrallah?,” I asked. “Mmm, yes, but even more so this guy,” as he pulled out a keychain with President Chavez of Venezuela from his display case. I laughed. “Why Chavez?” He said “You know, there is a joke going around, we call him Abu Ali, because he is the most Arab of all the Arabs.” What he meant is that Chavez, like Bashar and Nasrallah and Guevara, defies American requests to shape his country’s policies to the benefit of the US.

A pastiche of keychains.

Another friend of mine in the Old City souq, a young shop owner of Palestinian descent, showed me the pictures in his cell phone one evening. They consisted of three types: personal photos of himself, friends, and girlfriends, Amr Diab (an Arabic pop singer from Egypt), and Che Guevara. I’d guess that out of 275 photos in his phone memory, at least 75 were of Che. I asked him why he admired the man so much. “He was a humanitarian. He was a doctor. He helped people. Not only did he fight for freedom in his own country, he helped fight for freedom from oppression, freedom from American political domination, in all the countries that surrounded him.” The relationship between the symbolism of Che and the struggle of the Palestinians, along with the rest of the Middle East, in fighting for freedom from US and Israeli political and economic domination was then obvious.

Hizballah motif cake in Bab Touma, a Christian area of the Old City.

I should also note that Hizballah’s popularity is certainly not limited to the Shi’i or even the Muslim areas of the city. One associate commented that Hizballah paraphernalia seems even more prevalent in Christian areas. Perhaps this is true, but the fact that Hizballah’s support is not limited by sectarian identity points even more strongly to the fact that the party is seen by Arabs belonging to different religious communities as representing their shared political interests against dominating forces. Arabs like strong defiant leaders, whether they are Shi’i from Lebanon or Venezuelan. Another possibility, though, is that Christians here feel the need to display their solidarity with the majority Muslim community. I don’t think, however, that this is a disingenuous display of support, even if other observers have noted that Christians in Syria are frightened by the prospect of being dominated by a Muslim government and are more happy to live under a minority regime that might protect them. Next time I pass by I’ll ask the Christian shop owner if he is at all frightened by the Islamic character of Hizballah.