This paper was published in Arabic on 12 June and updated on 15 June 2020. Find it here.

Since 6 June 2020, protests against deteriorating living conditions have been ongoing in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida. The political slogans chanted in the protests have reached the point of demanding the toppling of the Syrian regime. They also hold President Bashar al-Assad directly responsible for the failure to resolve the country’s various social and national crises. Certain slogans first used in the early days of the Syrian revolution have been revived in the Sweida protests more than five years since the last anti-regime demonstrations in the city. Although some of the more socially oriented chants are new to the Syrian revolution, such as ‘Bread, Freedom, Social Justice,’ there are also others of a more patriotic character declaring solidarity with other Syrian provinces and demanding the withdrawal of Iranian and Russian forces from Syria.

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