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The Palestine Center in Washington, DC hosted a June 22 panel to discuss the current state of Palestinian refugees in Syria. Both panelists were born and raised in Damascus' Yarmouk refugee camp: Nidal Bitari founded the Palestinian Association of Human Rights in Syria, and Wesam Sabaaneh is founder and director of the Jafra Foundation, which focuses on the youth and development in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.
When Americans think of refugee camps, they often think of tents, explained Bitari, now senior programs manager for the organization People Demand Change. This was not the case in Yarmouk or the 11 other Syrian camps which were home to the 500,000 Palestinian refugees who fled during the 1948 Nakba and subsequent wars. These camps were the hubs of Palestinian heritage, a source of amazing culture, according to Bitari.
Before the Syrian civil war there were more than 800,000 people living in the largest camp, Yarmouk, only 160,000 of them Palestinians, according to Bitari. It had a thriving middle class population and was dubbed "the capital of the diaspora." In fact, according to Bitari, Yarmouk had the greatest...