Jo Cox death: Syrians pay tribute to 'champion of humanity' for MP's tireless campaigning for peace and refugees

The Labour MP co-founded an all-party Parliamentary group on Syria within months of taking office

Syrian activists have been paying tribute to the life and legacy of Jo Cox after the Labour MP was killed in her constituency.

The country’s brutal civil war and the refugee crisis were among the 41-year-old’s most prolific campaign issues after she was elected to represent Batley and Spen in the House of Commons last year.

Members of the Syria Solidarity UK group said humanity had “lost a champion” with Mrs Cox’s death on Thursday, praising her work across party lines to minimise civilian casualties.

Mourners at a memorial service for Jo Cox (REUTERS) (Reuters)

An open letter signed by the leaders of organisations including the Syrian Association of Yorkshire, Scotland4Syria and the Syrian Welsh Society called her view of the crisis “both moral and realistic”.

“British politics sacrificed its own humanity in its response to the Syria crisis. Jo Cox did her best to redeem it,” it continued. “We will miss her deeply.”

Salim Salamah, a Palestinian blogger born in Damascus, wrote a blog praising Mrs Cox as part of the “principled minority” swimming against the political current to try and help Syrians.

“Syrians today did not only lose a friend, they lost one of very few allies and it is tragic on many levels,” he said.

“Many Syrians send their love, support and condescendence to Jo’s husband and her children; may her politics of humanity and solidarity become the norm.”

Rime Allaf, a Syrian writer, said her countrymen and women would mourn Mrs Cox in a tweet, adding: “May you rest in peace.”

The White Helmets, a group of search and rescue volunteers in Syria, were among three charities to benefit from a crowdfunding page set up in Mrs Cox’s name after death.

The founders of Jo Cox’s Fund, which raised more than £50,000 within three hours of going online, said it was one of the groups “closest to her heart”.

Mrs Cox, who travelled to several conflict zones while working for Oxfam, launched the All Party Parliamentary Friends of Syria group within months of the general election.

As well as calling for the need for no-bombing zones, she demanded the investigation of alleged war crimes on all sides of the conflict, including within the Syrian regime, and for all parties to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.

She was also among a handful of MPs to abstain on a vote to extend British air strikes into Syria last year, arguing that the intervention did not form part of a comprehensive strategy to end the conflict, defeat extremists and deal with Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Smoke rises over the wreckage of buildings after a suspected barrel bomb attacks on Beyan hospital and a bazaar in Aleppo, Syria on 8 June, 2016 (Ebu Leys/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

In an article co-authored with the Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell in October, she argued that military intervention could be used to create “safe havens” protecting civilians from all belligerents inside Syria.

“There is nothing ethical about standing to one side when civilians are being murdered and maimed,” they wrote.

Mrs Cox was also vocal in calling for the British Government to resettle more refugees from Syria and other conflict zones, particularly unaccompanied children.

In one of her final appearances in the House of Commons on 24 May, she made the passionate case for international action as bombing continued to kill civilians in both regime and rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

Many people were sharing footage of her address to fellow MPs today as shock over her killing continued to reverberate.

“Without international action, on current trends, at the end of this short debate, another two Syrian civilians will be dead and four will be badly injured,” Mrs Cox said.

“I do not believe that either President Obama or the Prime Minister tried to do harm in Syria but, as is said, sometimes all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."