When forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which had been a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization until its revocation on July 8, 2025, seized Damascus on December 8, 2024, Syria’s new rulers moved quickly to portray themselves as pragmatic, inclusive and ready to engage with the international community.
Yet chants heard at military ceremonies, government operations and public demonstrations tell a different story. They show that explicit antisemitism and anti-Israel incitement remain deeply embedded among parts of Syria’s armed forces and broader public.
As ADL documented, HTS, which emerged from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, congratulated Hamas following the October 7 massacre and promoted a vision of “Greater Syria” encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories. Fighters entering Damascus were filmed vowing to march “from Damascus to Jerusalem,” while current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa previously declared that “Jerusalem awaits us.”
Events since the takeover underscore why this record cannot be dismissed as merely historical.
On January 22, 2025, armed men, identified as graduates of special forces linked to Syria’s new Ministry of Defense, marched in Deir ez-Zor while chanting: “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!” The chant invokes the seventh-century defeat of the Jewish community of Khaybar and has long been used by Islamist extremists as a genocidal threat against Jews. The fact that uniformed graduates recited it during a military ceremony raises serious questions about the ideology being normalized inside Syria’s reconstituted security institutions.
The rhetoric was also used during an official military parade in Damascus on December 8, 2025, the first anniversary of the city’s seizure, held in the presence of al-Sharaa. Soldiers chanted: “Gaza, Gaza, our rallying cry. Victory and steadfastness, night and day. We rise against you, enemy, we rise. From mountains of fire, we make our way. From my blood, I forge my ammunition. From your blood, rivers will flow.” This violent message against an implied enemy, namely Israel, delivered by state forces at an official ceremony attended by Syria’s president, forms part of the wider pattern.
In January 2026, government-affiliated forces entering the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods of Aleppo were also reported to have chanted, “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews!”
The same chant then surfaced during demonstrations across Syria in April 2026. Protests occurred in Damascus and its surroundings, Aleppo, Hama, southern Syria and other areas. A video included in a detailed account of the demonstrations shows participants chanting: “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! The army of Muhammad will return.” In Damascus, protesters gathered outside the embassy of the United Arab Emirates, referred to it as “the Zionist embassy,” and attempted to storm the compound.
One of the clearest examples came in August 2026, when Syrian Arab Army soldiers standing in formation outside the historic Damascus Citadel were filmed chanting: “I am coming for you, Jew” and “I will make your blood flow in rivers.” The reporting identified the men as Syrian soldiers, citing Al Araby TV as the source of the footage.
Perhaps even more alarmingly, footage posted in August 2026 reportedly showed medical graduates from Aleppo University repeating the same chant, replacing the word “Jew” with the word “enemy”: “We are coming, enemy, we will make your blood flow like rivers.” The spectacle of future medical professionals, trained to care for human life, joining in an implied threat against Jews illustrates how antisemitic incitement can appear not only among armed forces and street demonstrators but also within professional and educational settings.
Taken collectively, these incidents expose a dangerous gap between the government’s moderate international messaging and the rhetoric tolerated among forces operating in its name.
The Syrian government’s efforts at moderation should be judged not by diplomatic assurances but by whether it investigates these incidents, disciplines those responsible and removes antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement from its armed forces and public institutions. Governments engaging Damascus must make that accountability a condition of deeper normalization. A new Syria cannot be built while those making threats against Jews and Israelis are permitted to march openly in uniform, as government officials, or as civil servants.