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Post by pieter on Apr 13, 2015 15:48:44 GMT -7
Battle of Yarmouk Camp (2015)Monument to PFLP martyrs in YarmoukThe Battle of Yarmouk Camp (2015) was a battle that broke out in April 2015, during the Syrian Civil War, when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant stormed the rebel-held Yarmouk Camp. The Yarmouk is a district of Damascus that is home to the largest community of Palestinian refugees in Syria. BackgroundOn 17 December 2012, the Free Syrian Army and anti-government Palestinians took control of the camp. After subsequent heavy fighting, the FSA and the Syrian Army agreed to leave Yarmouk as a neutral, demilitarized zone, but the camp remained besieged and sporadic clashes continued. Syrian government forces besieged Yarmouk for two years and as a result approximately 200 people are believed to have died of hunger in 2014. ISIL storms the campISIS fighters enter the Yarmouk refugees campOn 1 April, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants entered the Yarmouk refugees camp from the Hajar Al-Aswad district, but were expelled the next day by Syrian and Palestinian rebels. However, ISIL re-entered the camp on 4 April and took control of 90% of it. ISIS fighter firing a heavy machine gunin the Yarmuk campOn 5 April, the Jaysh al-Islam, claimed that its fighters were refused access to the camp by al-Nusra Front and that al-Nusra allowed ISIL to enter the camp, which led to some defections from the first party. The al-Nusra Front responded by defending its neutral stance in the conflict and claimed to have mediated a ceasefire. It also denied rumors about the alleged defections. Meanwhile, the Army bombed the camp with 13 barrel bombs. A commander in the Aknaf Bait al-Maqdis was killed during clashes with ISIL. Jabhat al-Nusra fighters in Yarmouk (Photo: AFP/Archive)Pro-government Palestinian counterattackA Palestinian fighter in the Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, on Thursday. About 18,000 people are trapped there: photo by Youssef BadawiOn 6 April, it was reported that about 2,000 people were evacuated from the camp since ISIL's attack. The same day, pro-government Palestinian groups led by the Palestine Liberation Army, PFLP-GC and Fatah al-Intifada launched a counter-offensive against ISIL. They reportedly captured the Morocco Street, Al-Ja’ounah Street and the Martyrs Cemetery and claimed to have killed 36 ISIL militants. The PFLP-GC said the three Palestinian groups controlled 40% of the Yarmouk camp. Palestinian fighters in the armouk CampAs of 7 April, the fighting had ceased, with ISIL in control of 95% of the camp. Rebel counterattackOn 12 April, a pro-opposition source claimed Jaysh al-Islam and allied forces launched a counter-attack on the ISIL-held Hajar al-Aswad district and reportedly advanced. Jaysh al-Islam also recaptured Al-Zein street in Yarmouk Camp from ISIL during a nighttime operation. Residents of Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Damascus, Syria. Photo: UNRWA/Walla Masoud
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Post by pieter on Apr 13, 2015 16:16:55 GMT -7
PLO ‘against’ Syria army Yarmouk camp offensiveA Palestinian woman holds a placard during a gathering in Gaza City on April 9, 2015, in solidarity with the Palestinians living in Syria's Yarmuk refugee camp. (File: AFP)By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News Friday, 10 April 2015The PLO said Thursday it is against a Syrian military offensive into a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus that has been overrun by militants of ISIS and the Al Nusra Front, going against earlier comments by a member voicing support for an operation, Reuters news agency reported. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ( ISIS) militant group has seized almost all of the Yarmouk camp, sparking clashes between local armed groups and the Islamist militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. “ We refuse to be drawn into any armed campaign, whatever its nature or cover, and we call for resorting to other means to spare the blood of our people and prevent more destruction and displacement for our people of the camp,” the Palestine Liberation Organization said in a statement issued from Ramallah. Earlier, Ahmad Majdalani, a member of its executive committee who was sent by the PLO leadership to Damascus to discuss the crisis with the government, said he fully endorsed a Syrian military offensive to regain control of the camp. Majdalani blamed the hard-line Islamists in control of the camp of exploiting the plight of Palestinians to their own ends. “ They (radical Islamists) have tried to use the camp as a launching pad to expand their scope of clashes and their terror activities inside and outside the camp,” said Majdalani, a former minister in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Majdalani said the Syrian army alongside local Palestinian groups had some success in pushing back ISIS and had so far secured 35 percent of the camp. The sprawling Yarmouk camp was home to some 160,000 Palestinians before the Syrian conflict began in 2011, refugees from the 1948 war of Israel’s founding, and their descendants. Majdalani said there were just 17,500 residents left, with around 2,000 evacuated since the latest round of fighting. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain, earlier said that ISIS controlled 90 percent of the camp after defeating fighters mainly from Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, a Syrian and Palestinian militia opposed to Assad. ISIS, the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, is now only a few kilometers from Assad’s seat of power. The Palestinian official echoed the Syrian government line that the only way to rid the camp of the ultra-radical militants was through force. “What we have agreed with our Syrian brothers and factions is that the options that existed for a political solution were closed by the fighters of Daesh [ISIS],” he said. “The crimes they have committed ... left us with no choice except a security one that respects the partnership with the Syrian state,” he told a news conference in Damascus. The Observatory has said Syrian air force jets had been waging a bombing campaign on militant hideouts in the camp almost daily since ISIS fighters infiltrated from the adjacent, rebel-held Hajar al Aswad neighborhood. The United Nations has said it is extremely concerned about the safety and protection of Syrians and Palestinians in the camp. Civilians trapped there have long suffered a two-year government siege to force rebels to capitulate that has led to chronic food shortages and disease. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York the camp was beginning to resemble “ a death camp” with its residents facing “ a double-edged sword: armed elements inside the camp and government forces outside.” Ban warned that any “ massive assault on the camp and all civilians would be yet one more outrageous war crime for which those responsible must be held accountable." “ We simply cannot stand by and watch a massacre unfold,” he said. Last Update: Friday, 10 April 2015 KSA 07:29 - GMT 04:29
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Post by karl on Apr 13, 2015 19:41:39 GMT -7
Pieter
It was good of you to enter this recent update upon a very sad and deplorable situation with Yarmouk Palestinians trapped there. It would so seem these people are not wanted where ever they are. Even with extreme condemnation by Hamas toward PA President Mahmoud Abbas for his non action to bring out these fellow Palestinians to safety of the West Bank as an exclusion to the ongoing Syrian civil war.
This may be observed as simply being gutless, or, a plan of survival for the people he represents. What ever his reasons, his courage is very exemplary. For this is a test of leadership for the few that must be let go for the survival of the many to his responsibility.
It would seem plausible to at least with the force of arms in the extreme, to wedge open a passage for supply relief to these people. It is understandable due to the high number of entrapped people, to provide safe passage out of the area of combat is for the most part, not plausible. It would then if possible, where to take them and who would take them in?
As heartless as it is, for this time under these conditions, it needs be considered that these people are sacrificed as non-attainable. There fate will be to the hands of the IS or, if fortunant, the war will pass them by.
Hopefully, time and circumstances will be in their favour and this will not happen. But, a false hope is more dangerious then no hope at all.
Karl
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Post by pieter on Apr 14, 2015 15:51:56 GMT -7
Dear Karl, Jaga and other Forum members,
The Palestinian people, war after war, civil war after civil war, being persecuted and abused as a minority in country after country and being spread across the Middle-east, North-Africa, Europe and the USA have become tough (hardened), traumatized, bitter, abandonned, ingored and inventive and creative people. They have to be smart, creative, innovative and communicative people to survive. Palestinian culture is closely related to those of the nearby Levantine countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, and the Arab World. Yet, they aren't part of that Arab world, because Israel (situated in that Arab world), Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq are hostile environments for them. The native bedouin people of Jordan don't like Palestinians (they don't like the Palestinian wife of the king), but they are the support base of the Jordanian king. In Lebanon the Palestinians fased hostilities of Hezbollah and Amal, Lebanese christian militia, Druze and others. In Syria and Iraq as we know their situation as minorities and refugees is terrible. The Shia majority in Iraq is hostile to them, because in the past they supported Sadam Hussein and Sadam Hussein supported the Palestinians.
The Palestinians will fight IS and the Al Nusra Front until the end, because they have decades of armed trainering as armed guerilla's, militants of the several Palestinian movements in the camps (Fatah, PFLP, DFLP, The Peoples Commities, Hamas affiliated militia, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades and etc.). Unfortunately the largest danger and tragedy of the Palestinians is their lack of unity and thus infighting and the competition between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza, the West Bank, the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and probably in Jordan too. Jordanian Palestinians might be Jordanians in a few generations if they live long enough and integrated or assimilated enough into the Jordanian Bedouin culture.
Palestinian handicrafts are handicrafts produced by Palestinian people. A wide variety of handicrafts, many of which have been produced by Arabs in Palestine for hundreds of years, continue to be produced today. Palestinian handicrafts include embroidery work, pottery-making, soap-making, glass-making, weaving, and olive-wood and Mother of Pearl carvings, among others. Some Palestinian cities in the West Bank, particularly Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus have gained renown for specializing in the production of a particular handicraft, with the sale and export of such items forming a key part of each cities' economy.
In keeping with an Arab League resolution in 1965, most Arab countries have refused to grant citizenship to Palestinians, arguing that it would be a threat to their right of return to their homes in Palestine. In 2012, Egypt deviated from this practice by granting citizenship to 50,000 Palestinians, mostly from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians living in Lebanon are deprived of basic civil rights. They cannot own homes or land, and are barred from becoming lawyers, engineers and doctors.
In total, an estimated 600,000 Palestinians are thought to reside in the Americas. Palestinian emigration to South America began for economic reasons that pre-dated the Arab-Israeli conflict, but continued to grow thereafter. Many emigrants were from the Bethlehem area. Those emigrating to Latin America were mainly Christian. Half of those of Palestinian origin in Latin America live in Chile. El Salvador and Honduras also have substantial Palestinian populations. These two countries have had presidents of Palestinian ancestry (in El Salvador Antonio Saca, currently serving; in Honduras Carlos Roberto Flores). Belize, which has a smaller Palestinian population, has a Palestinian minister – Said Musa. Schafik Jorge Handal, Salvadoran politician and former guerrilla leader, was the son of Palestinian immigrants.
Like other people Palestinians have a working class, fishermen, farmers, a middle class of shop owners, employee's of government institutions, teachers and small salesmen, and nex to that a highclass of richer businessmen, Palestinians with family businesses, firms or real estate. The Palestinian diaspora is succesful in the rest of the world, because the Palestinians are ambitious and entrepreneural people and as semites, like the Arabs and jews of the middle east and the world they are traders, businessmen, bankers and thus entrepreneurs. Palestinians learn from the people and nations they live next to and in. So they learned from the Israeli's, various Arabs (Jordans, Lebanese, Egytpians, Tunesians -during the time the PLO headquarters were in Tunis-, Syrians, Saoudi Arabians, Qatari's, United Arab Emirati's, Kuwayties, Iraqi's, Americans, Europeans, Australians, Canadians, Southern-Americans and etc. The Palestinians will find a way to survive despite continued bloodshed, persecution, lack of freedom and possibilities in life.
Again the Palestinians are a toughened people and they will find a way to come out of their misery and hardship. They can't count on the mercy or empathy of the world. They can learn from the jews of the past, the jewish diaspora, which sufffered from anti-jewish laws, pogroms, harassment, abuse and exclusion. The Palestinians are the jews of today. Like karl said: "It would so seem these people are not wanted where ever they are."
Cheers, Pieter
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