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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Focus Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Lot in common
By Khaled DawoudUnlike Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan or the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, those in Syria have no main entrance nor any indication that a visitor is about to enter a place distinct from its surroundings. In Lebanon, tanks and heavily armed soldiers of the Lebanese army stand at the entrances of refugee camps in the south. In Jordan, the major camps, located on the outskirts of the capital, have designated entrances and signs telling visitors they are about to enter areas reserved for Palestinian refugees.
In contrast, Al-Yarmouk refugee camp, the biggest in Syria, does not have a designated entrance or even a clear sign telling outsiders where they are. That it is not clearly demarcated is especially noteworthy given that it is located in a populous and expanding area only a few kilometres outside of Damascus and amidst a number of small towns. "Al-Yarmouk is not a camp, it is a small city," says Mahmoud, a resident of the camp who did not want his full name published. "There are more Syrians living here than Palestinians," he adds.
Official Syrian figures estimate that nearly 500,000 people live in Al-Yarmouk, and only 150,000 are Palestinians. The rising cost of house rent in Damascus and nearly stagnant salaries pushed many Syrians to move to Al-Yarmouk, where the cost of living is cheaper. At night, its streets are packed, with hardly enough space for cars to drive or even for people to walk.
Most of the dwellings in Al-Yarmouk are tall, but not very impressive, cement buildings. This adds to the impression that Al-Yarmouk is a small town rather than a Palestinian refugee camp, which like those in Lebanon and Jordan are filled with tiny overcrowded houses.
"The way camps originally started here is different from how they developed in Lebanon and Jordan," says Maher Taher, a policy-maker in the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He explained that when Palestinians were first forced to leave Palestine, they gathered together and began building homes. Then more Palestinians came and lived next to them thereby forming small communities.
Bashar Al-Assad acknowledges the support of Baath party members after being proclaimed its leader at the party's 18 June congress
(photo: AFP)Taher says that Palestinians have total freedom of movement within Syria and are treated like citizens, which contrasts considerably with situation in neighbouring Lebanon. In Syria, Palestinians enjoy the right to carry a Syrian travel document and they do not need a visa upon return from abroad. Equally important, they can buy, sell and rent property anywhere in the country; they are entitled to free health care and education up to university level and they are permitted to work in all trades and professions. Conversely, in Lebanon, Palestinians are in large part confined to their camps, they are deprived of working in a range of vocations and they fear that if they leave the country they will not be allowed to return.
But life in Syria has other restrictions for Palestinians. Pictures of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat do not decorate entrances of the camps or the walls of their narrow alleys as they do in Jordan and Lebanon. According to the United Nations Refugees and Work Agency (UNRWA), which has been providing basic services to Palestinians since their dispossession in 1948 and the establishment of Israel, an estimated 356,000 Palestinians currently live in Syria's 10 refugee camps.
"Syria's support for the Palestinian cause is unquestionable," says Taher of the PFLP. "Its commitment to the restoration of Palestinian rights is an integral part of the state's ideology and that of the ruling Baath Party," he added. But, relations between late President Hafez Al-Assad and Arafat were never very good. Arafat was kicked out of Syria in 1983 after fighting against Syrian troops in Lebanon's bloody civil war. Later, according to Syrians, Arafat broke a pledge to coordinate with late President Assad in negotiations with Israel, and secretly negotiated the Oslo deal in 1993.
"There is a political difference in views between the Palestinian and Syrian leaderships, the latter of which believes that Arafat's negotiating style will not lead to the restoration of Palestinian rights and that he has offered too many needless concessions," Taher said.
Supporters of Arafat are regularly rounded up by Syrian security for questioning. Meanwhile, even Damascus-based Palestinian groups who stood against Arafat and enjoy the backing of the Syrian leadership, have to "coordinate" very closely with Syrian security bodies before making any moves or issuing statements. "I cannot go to Lebanon without obtaining permission from Syrian security," said one member of a Palestinian opposition group.
Ali Badwan, spokesman for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, led by Nayef Hawatmeh, said his group will continue to try to improve ties between Arafat and Syria. Hawatmeh and Arafat met in Damascus following Assad's funeral last week and agreed to implement proposals they reached in two earlier rounds of discussions they held last year. Arafat's Fatah group, the largest in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), agreed to hold talks with other Damascus-based groups last year in the hope that this would give some backing to the Palestinian leader in the tough final status talks with Israel. Yet, while the dialogue between Arafat and Hawatmeh seemed to be making progress, Fatah's relations with the PFLP, led until recently by George Habash, seem to be at a standstill.
Asked whether Arafat's visit would influence Syria's stand towards Palestinian opposition groups, Taher of the PFLP said he did not expect much of a change. "Syria will back any effort which would reunite Palestinians on the basis of commitment to the basic rights of the Palestinian people, such as the restoration of Jerusalem, return of refugees, removal of Israeli settlements and the establishment of the Palestinian state," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. Yet now with reports that Arafat is ready to make "major concessions" to reach an agreement with Israel, "there seems to be little margin for change between Syria and Israel," Taher said.
Mahmoud, the resident of the refugee camp who showed Al-Ahram Weekly's reporter around the camp, said that what Palestinians suffered most, like the Syrians, was increasing living costs and rising rates of unemployment. Mahmoud says the spread corruption within the Syrian bureaucracy and ruling Baath Party is another major concern for all those living in Syria.
"Therefore, everybody here hopes that Bashar will work on changing all that," he added. "It will be a difficult job indeed, especially given that the Syrian bureaucracy is like a monster," he added.
