Posted on 05/18/25
| News Source: Arutz-7
While the new regime in Damascus publicly promotes a policy of reconciliation with the Jewish community, behind the scenes, an entirely different approach is unfolding.
According to a report by Roi Kais on Kan 11 News, the new Syrian regime has transferred between dozens and a hundred homes belonging to Jews who left the country to local residents.
The Syrian Interior Ministry authorized a local entity, headed by Yousef Hamdan and Ahmad Abu Shukr, to transfer properties of "absent Jews" to new owners. This is despite the fact that during former Bashar Al-Assad’s rule, these properties remained in Jewish ownership and were not harmed.
Bechor Simantov, a senior member of the small Jewish community still living in Syria, protested to the new authorities, demanding they halt the process.
Following his appeal, the regime reportedly ordered a stop to further property transfers, but the properties already handed over have not yet been returned to their original owners, and the new occupants have not been evicted.
The irony is particularly striking given that just last week, US President Donald Trump lifted sanctions that were imposed on Syria. The sanctions were lifted after the new regime hosted delegations of American Jews of Syrian descent in the Jewish quarter of Damascus, aiming to gain their support in pressuring for the sanctions’ removal.
Sources quoted in the report said that negotiations are underway to return the Jewish properties to their rightful owners, but so far, these efforts have been unsuccessful.