Yarmouk: from refugee to “death” camp
Before the Syrian civil war the Yarmouk district on the outskirts of Damascus was home to almost 150,000 registered Palestinian refugees. It was probably the largest and most well-developed refugee settlement in the world; it was certainly the biggest in Syria.
In May 2018 the last Daesh fighters who had occupied the camp, along with other Syrian rebels, were driven out. The area now stands in ruins and is completely uninhabitable. There are plans for the complete redevelopment of southern Damascus, and the former camp residents may find themselves excluded.
Comments
The key words are "was viewed as..."
Assad has a hell of a lot of Palestinian blood on his hands. See:
and
Weird article
The article is completely weird. The claim that most Palestinians in Yarmouk supported the regime is false; obviously, like any other group, they were divided, but the general sympathies of Yarmouk Palestinians to the people in revolt all around them (who often enough were relatives and friends) has abundant evident evidence. Most of the
Palestinian armed groups are pro-regime, because obviously they were the one's allowed to operate - a list is little more than the same list of organisations that Assad father spawned to split the PLO in the 1980s in Lebanon (PFLP-GC etc). The exception was the local cadres of Hamas who have been pro-opposition all along. The article also dishonestly conflates ISIS (which seized the camp in 2015, years after Assad's siege began) with the rebels. That is not to say all rebels acted well, as some didn't; or that Palestinians were thrilled with the FSA entering the camp, knowing it would result in Assad destroying them; but the regime's repression in the camp began before the rebels
entered, due to the activities of Yarmouk Palestinians as part of the civil uprising in solidarity with their Syrian brothers and sisters. And Assad was anything but one of the most pro-Palestinian leaders in the region: no other Arab leader has so much Palestinian blood on its hands, and that is long before 2011 and the siege and destruction of Palestinian camps in Syria.
What is this article really trying to say?
"The livelihoods and rights the Palestinians once had in Yarmouk have been annihilated" and "Suggestions that Palestinians might be moved out to scrubland rather than returned to the area are clearly not unfounded" - clearly they are as yet "unfounded" unless there is further information which you have not included here.
Are you trying to suggest that this was Assad's fault? If so you don't explain why Assad would change from being "one of the most pro- Palestinian of regional leaders" to something else.