Launch of the "Sweida is Ours and Within Us" Campaign for Reconstruction and National Fabric.. and Artistic Participation Sparks Controversy

The Sweida Governorate announced the launch of a comprehensive national campaign focusing on rehabilitating infrastructure and enhancing social cohesion, amidst artistic participation that received interaction and criticism on social media.

The Governor of Sweida, Mustafa Al-Bakur, launched an extensive national campaign under the slogan "Sweida is Ours and Within Us", aimed at rebuilding the social fabric and repairing infrastructure in the governorate, especially in the western and northern rural areas that were affected by recent tensions.

The announcement of the campaign came in statements by the governor last Thursday, where he clarified that the projects will extend to the restoration and rehabilitation of 50 schools, 35 mosques, and 35 places of worship for the Druze community, in addition to 15 churches. The campaign also includes the restoration of water wells, equipping 20,000 homes, and enhancing the efficiency of 40 municipalities and cultural centers and the road network.

Several prominent artistic figures in Syria joined the campaign, where actor Jihad Abdo posted a video on "Facebook" calling for donations, describing the campaign as aiming to "mend broken hearts", and defining it as "the campaign of nobility and loyalty".

For his part, actor Maxim Khalil participated by calling on Syrians to support the campaign, saying in a widely circulated video: "Let’s contribute to the donation campaign organized by us Syrians to help our people in Sweida. It could be a step that brings us together so we can hold each other's hands in Syria for all Syrians".

In contrast, these participations faced a wave of criticism from some social media activists, who saw that the actors "did not take a similar stance in other recent events in the country", according to their claims. Syrian singer Mays Harb, from the governorate, also directed sharp criticism at the artists participating in the campaign days ago.

The launch of the campaign comes after months of clashes that occurred in the governorate between Druze gunmen and Bedouin tribes last July, which necessitated the intervention of security forces.

Governor Mustafa Al-Bakur had previously stated that "the deterioration of services in the governorate is not due to the state's negligence but rather to internal positions taken by some parties and the absence of official communication channels with the government".

He added that "the state has provided large quantities of wheat and flour, but the absence of an official entity to receive them within Sweida has prevented their organized distribution", emphasizing that "the government is ready to secure fuel in large quantities provided that financial monitoring is conducted in Damascus, which is rejected by the parties controlling the governorate".

The governor revealed, according to what was reported by "Syrian News", that "an illegal committee seized an amount of 20 billion Syrian pounds and one million dollars from the Sweida Bank, which was spent without oversight or official reports".