MEMRI: May 20, 2015 Special Dispatch No.6051

The Emergence Of 'Galilee Forces' � Palestinian Forces Fighting Alongside

Syrian Regime

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8571.htm



In recent weeks, fierce battles have raged on several fronts between

supporters and forces of the Syrian regime and the Syrian opposition, from

Idlib in the north of Syria to Rif Dimashq in the south to the Al-Qalamoun

mountains on the Lebanese border. Both sides see these campaigns as highly

critical ones that could win the war that is now in its fifth year, and are

sending more and more troops to those areas.



In addition to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Lebanese

Hizbullah, and the Shi'ite Iraqi, Afghani, and Pakistani militias,

Palestinian forces are also fighting alongside the Syrian regime.[1]

According to the Revolution Forces of Syria website, the main Palestinian

forces fighting alongside the regime included the 60,000-strong Palestinian

Liberation Army � "the military wing of the PLO" � and Liwa Al-Quds, led by

Muhammad Sa'id, which comprises several thousand residents of Palestinian

refugee camps near Aleppo.[2]



This Palestinian loyalty towards the Syrian regime is unsurprising, in light

of the fact that over the years, Syria has served as a base and a refuge for

armed secular Palestinian groups, and, until recently, for Islamic groups

such as Hamas. Against the backdrop of the fighting in the Al-Yarmouk

refugee camp near Damascus, and ISIS's entry into the camp, the alliance

between the Syrian regime and the armed Palestinian groups has become

closer, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) even announced that it supported

the regime's actions vis-�-vis the camp.[3]



In recent days, a new Palestinian group, the Galilee Forces (Quwat Al-Jalil)

or Galilee Brigade (Liwa Al-Jalil), has emerged and is fighting alongside

the Syrian regime in Al-Qalamoun and Rif Dimashq; this group is the military

wing of the Palestinian Youth Return Movement, and is led by Fadi Al-Mallah,

aka Abu Al-Fidaa.



The Palestinian Youth Return Movement



The Palestinian Youth Return Movement, headed by Al-Mallah, was established

in Damascus on May 12, 2012, a year after the outbreak of the anti-regime

riots, which by then had developed into a full-blown war. The organization's

establishment also coincided with the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.





Left: Palestinian Youth Return Movement emblem; right: Galilee Forces

shoulder badge



A few days after the establishment of the Palestinian Youth Return Movement,

Al-Mallah declared that it had "a large popular base in Syria and occupied

Palestine" and that it demanded achieving Palestinian national rights by the

liberation of Palestine and all occupied land in the Arab homeland by means

of all forms of struggle, chiefly armed resistance." He stressed that the

movement had no relation to any other movement or party.[4]



The movement's Facebook page features photos of cities both in the

Palestinian territories and in Israel, such as Jaffa, Haifa, Safed, which

prior to 1948 were major Arab urban centers, captioned "so that we do not

forget."[5]





Left: Safed; Right: "This is Haifa... and the stones speak"



Alongside statements about the desire and the aspiration to realize the

Palestinian right of return, Palestine Youth Return members express

unqualified support for the Syrian regime. In an interview with the Syrian

website nuss.sy a few days after the movement was established, Al-Mallah

praised "the steadfast stand made by the Arab Syrian people and the wisdom

of President Bashar Al-Assad," adding that "the path of return begins in

Damascus."[6] On May 21, 2014, the movement issued a statement of support

for the Syrian presidential elections and called them "the true and

legitimate way to preserve the unity of Syria � [the symbol] of the

resistance."[7] In addition, in August 2014, at the height of the fighting

in Gaza, movement members participated in a blood drive for the Syrian army.

According to Al-Mallah, "every drop of blood donated for the Arab Syrian

army is a donation for the heroic Gaza... Palestinian blood donations are a

kind of reciprocation to Syria and its sons... who have done everything for

the Palestinians and their cause in the past decades."[8]



The Galilee Forces � The Military Wing Of The Palestinian Youth Return

Movement



As noted, the Palestine Youth Return Movement's support for the Syrian

regime recently acquired another expression with the establishment of its

military wing, the Galilee Forces. On the Galilee Forces Facebook page,

Al-Mallah is described as "our commander, and our older and younger brother,

who taught us the meaning of sacrifice and taught us lessons in loyalty."[9]





Fadi Al-Mallah



The Galilee Forces sees itself as an integral part of the resistance axis.

In a Facebook post, the group stated: "We are the sons of the Galilee, Acre,

Haifa, Ramla, Safed, Al-Ja'una, Semakh, Yazour, and Lod. We are the sons of

the Golan, Sheba'a Al-Hamadiya, and Majdal. We are the Galilee Forces, the

descendants of ['Izz Al-Din] Al-Qassam, [Haj Amin] Al-Husseini, [and Raghib]

Al-Nashashibi. We are the descendants of [Ahmad] Jibril, [Ahmad]

Al-Shukairi, [Yasser] Arafat, [George] Habash, [Nayef] Hawatmeh... The

descendants of [Yahya] 'Ayyash, [Fathi] Al-Shaqaqi, and [Ahmad] Yassin... We

are the brothers of Bashar Al-Assad and the sons of [Hassan] Nasrallah and

['Abd Al-Malik] Al-Houthi. We are the brothers of ['Imad] Mughniyah."[10]



According to the group's Facebook page, its main activity is in Al-Qalamoun,

where the regime and its supporters have been fighting bloody battles

against the opposition under the leadership of "Jaish Fath Al-Qalamoun."[11]

The page recently featured a video from Al-Qalamoun dated May 4, 2015,

showing Galilee Forces members carrying the bodies of anti-Assad

"terrorists." Additionally, on May 14, 2015, the Facebook page reported that

a unit of the Galilee Forces � the Al-Basel Brigade � had participated in

the battle of Tal Moussa in Al-Qalamoun a few days previously, which ended

in victory.





Al-Basel Brigade after the victory in Tal Moussa



The Galilee Forces is also fighting alongside the Syrian regime in Rif

Dimashq. A recent video posted on the group's Facebook page featured "one of

the operations of the [armaments] production unit in the Galilee Brigade

together with the national defense forces and Arab Syrian army."[12]



Hizbullah Sources: War Plan For Al-Qalamoun Also Applicable To Galilee



The reports on the Galilee Forces joining the fighting in Al-Qalamoun

alongside Hizbullah and the Syrian regime appeared alongside reports in the

Arab press that linked the present fighting in that area to a future battle

between Hizbullah and Israel in the Galilee. Senior Hizbullah official

Hashem Safi Al-Din declared that "the resistance can replicate its newly

acquired experience from the Al-Qalamoun mountains and Syria in the

Galilee."[13] Hizbullah officials told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai that the war

plan implemented in Al-Qalamoun is also applicable to the Galilee, where

"the internal front behind the defense lines will be attacked, and all the

[military] positions, outposts and concentrations of forces will be shelled

until direct contact is achieved through a direct attack on the settlements

and military positions." The sources added that the Hizbullah leadership was

waiting to see the outcome of the battle in Al-Qalamoun in order to draw

lessons from it and improve the performance of their troops. They assessed

that the war in the Galilee will be easier than the war in Al-Qalamoun,

where Hizbullah is fighting forces imbued with deep faith that impels them

to fight to the death, "unlike the Israeli army."[14]



The Lebanese daily Al-Safir, known as a supporter of Hizbullah, wrote that

this organization's takeover of Tel Moussa, one of the tallest peaks in the

Al-Qalamoun range, is, among other things, "a message to Israel that the

resistance [i.e., Hizbullah] is in better shape than ever and that the war

in Syria has not exhausted it but has [only] strengthened it and improved

its capabilities..." The daily added: "Hizbullah's actions in Al-Qalamoun

may be a rehearsal for a similar scenario that may unfold in the occupied

Upper Galilee in any future war that might erupt.[15] Al-Safir reporter

Khalil Harb claimed that, by its victories in the Al-Qalamoun, Al-Qusayr and

Homs areas, Hizbullah had created for itself "strategic depth for any future

conflict with Israel, which will provide the resistance axis with broader

options in the field... Another message... addressed to the Israeli generals

[is this]: To what extent is the terrain in the Galilee less difficult than

[the terrain] in Al-Qalamoun?[16]



It should be noted that Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has

previously threatened � most recently in January 2015 � that in the next war

with Israel, Hizbullah will occupy the Galilee. [17]



Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that this is an attempt by Hizbullah to

justify the fighting in Al-Qalamoun, where it sustained heavy losses, and to

defend it to its core supporters by claiming that it was actually gaining

experience for a future war against Israel in the Upper Galilee.







Endnotes:











[1] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No. 1157, Iran Tightens Its

Grip On Syria Using Syrian And Foreign Forces, May 5, 2015.





[2] Rfsmediaoffice.com, May 13, 2015.





[3] In early May 2015, a PA delegation headed by Fatah Central Committee

member Zakaria Al-Agha visited Damascus to discuss ways of dealing with the

crisis caused by ISIS' infiltration of the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp. In a

meeting with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Al-Miqdad, Al-Agha

mentioned the depth of strategic relations between the Palestinian and

Syrian leaderships and their agreement on the methods to deal with the

crisis in the camp. He further said that the PA supports steps taken by the

Syrian government to defend its land and people. SANA news agency (Syria),

May 5, 2015. The extent of Palestinian involvement in the Syrian arena can

be seen by the part Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas played in securing

the release of two Swedish citizens who were captured by Jabhat Al-Nusra in

April 2015. Dp-news.com, April 26, 2015.





[4] Nuss.sy, June 2, 2012.





[5] Facebook.com/althwra, April 30, 2015.





[6] Nuss.sy, June 2, 2012.





[7] Facebook.com/SyriaTVChannels, May 21, 2014.





[8] Dampress.net, August 11, 2014.





[9] The Galilee Forces Facebook page, May 11, 2015.





[10] The post includes a list of towns in pre-1967 Israel, some of which

appear under their Hebrew names and some under their Arabic names, as well

as the names of commanders of Palestinian organizations that fought Israel

over the years and the names of elements related to the resistance axis.





[11] Jaish Al-Fath is a coalition of opposition factions formed in March

2015 comprising Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Jabhat Al-Nusra and other

factions, both Islamist and moderate.





[12] Facebook.com/ /pages/1579316665649427, April 26, 2015.





[13] Al-Mustaqbal (Lebanon), May 19, 2015.





[14] Al-Rai (Kuwait), May 14, 2015.





[15] Al-Safir (Lebanon), May 14, 2015.





[16] Al-Safir (Lebanon), May 14, 2015.





[17] Almayadeen.net, January 14, 2015.





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