Featured Photo: A slogan, addressing Bashar al-Assad, written on a ruined wall in Zabadani, 11 March 2016: "Destruction and refuge are on you; but, along with the rubble, your removal is on us."

This image shows the challenges and hope that Syrians have gone through, as well as the current reality of their situation. This slogan, written on the wall of a destroyed house, illustrates the sorrow and desolation in Zabadani, a town encircled by the regime and its sectarian militias. Zabadani stands with sadness and horror, due to the destruction at the hands of the crazed tyrants and sectarian militias.

The residents of Zabadani once welcomed, with open arms, those displaced from Lebanon following the 2006 war. Now, Hezbollah says that ‘the road to Jerusalem passes through Zabadani’, demolishing the city and displacing its residents to the far corners of the Earth.

This slogan has been etched into the heart of the city, rebellious and destroyed as it stands. It says, despite your destruction, your killing, your destruction, you will not stop us from continuing our demands for freedom. This leads one to wonder where the people of Zabadani are able to derive their strength and hope and thirst for life. This prompted media activist Raed Fares to caption the picture: “People say that we have nothing but slogans and lies, and that this is all bullshit and that the dictator will never fall. But this slogan, written in March 2016, five years after the start of the revolution, by a people who have been killed for five years, is proof that they are champions; champions of freedom and expression. The story remains one about the will of the people. The people who will never give up or be made extinct. The people whose nearby mountains absorbed all their silent screams.”