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After ‘Daesh’, Syrians invent new mocking name for Hezbollah Lebanon: Halesh

12345It seems the creative energy of the Syrian revolution has no limits. Last year, Syrian activists managed to establish ‘Daesh’, a mocking name derived from the Arabic initials of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS), as a widely used name for the al-Qaeda-affiliated group, even by mainstream media. Now activists have invented a new, similar mocking name for Hezbollah Lebanon: Halesh.

Like ‘Daesh’, the name ‘Halesh’ is derived from the Arabic initials of a new name now used by activists to describe Hezbollah Lebanon, which has been fighting alongside the Assad forces in Syria. The new made-up name has different variants that have been circulating on social media, including:

– “Halesh: The Lebanese Shia Party of God”

– “Halesh: Iran’s Lebanese Shia Party”

– “Halesh: Iran’s Party in Lebanon and Sham”.

‘Hezbollah’ in Arabic literally means ‘The Party of God’, and the group is seen by many as part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Sepah Pasdaran) due to the continued military and financial support provided to it by the Iranian regime.

COMMENT FROM NAAME’S SHAAM’S SYRIAN SOCIAL MEDIA MONITOR:

A new Facebook page dedicated to news and artistic works mocking ‘Halesh’ was created by Syrian activists on 20 February 2014. The page has quickly attracted more than 22,000 followers, but its admins say it has been the subject of a sustained attack by regime and Hezbollah supporters (mainly by reporting it as ‘abusive’ to the Facebook management so that it is closed down.) The activists behind the page have now set up a new one as a back-up,  in case the first one is shut down by Facebook, which has happened to many Syrian revolution pages in the past. 

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