Up until Thursday, United Nations relief workers were still trying to access the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, where the basic humanitarian needs of some 18,000 Palestinian civilians remain unmet. The situation in Yarmouk was thrust into the headlines on April 1 when Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) fighters stormed the camp and unleashed a campaign of violence and killings. Pro-government factions are currently surrounding the area and there is house-to-house combat, mostly at night. There has been a lot of destruction and very little territorial gain for either side, and all of it has taken a horrifying toll on the civilians trapped in the middle. Of the more than 100,000 who used to live there, only about 18,000 remain, according to UNRWA, the UN agency tasked with aiding Palestinians. Militants from Daesh are targeting Palestinian civilians in a reign of terror that Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, has called the “deepest circle of hell”. Integration of refugees is always a challenge, and it is particularly so in Syria, which is going through its own hell because of President Bashar Al-Assad's aggression and the brutality of Daesh. In Syria and Lebanon, one must acknowledge the problems faced by ruling governments in integrating Palestinian refugees. So the goal must be to end their refugee status as soon as possible. This brings up the right of return of refugees which remains a key element in the peace negotiations and which the Palestinians will never give up, as epitomized by the statement by President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas that “it's better to die in Syria than give up the right of return”. The renewal of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to achieve a two-state solution remains the best long-term solution for Palestinians. The world needs to finally treat the Palestinian refugee issue like the many other refugee situations that have plagued the world over many decades. If the world truly cares about the situation of Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East, it would not wait for a humanitarian crisis to erupt before acting to fundamentally improve their quality of life and end the circumstances that set the stage for these disasters. Although Yarmouk camp is just a little over two square kilometers in size, it is prized by Daesh for its proximity to Damascus; it is only eight kilometers from the center of the capital. By early this month, Daesh controlled 90 percent of the camp. The situation in the camp has come to the attention of the UN Security Council, but it is difficult to disagree with the verdict of the Palestinian League for Human Rights that the Palestinians of Syria are “the most untold story in the Syrian conflict”. They are caught between the rockets of Syrian government forces and the violence of Daesh militants who have seized territory in northern Syria and Iraq. Now is the time for those who claim to care about the Palestinian people, and their struggle for dignity, justice and nationhood, to make their voices heard, for the world is potentially witnessing a slaughter of the innocents. Their plight should matter to all – regardless of whether their persecutors happen to be Daesh, Israeli or Syrian.
