Yarmouk camp reaches out to the international community for help against IS invasion

[oberliner]

As Islamic State forces invade and take over 90 percent of Yarmouk camp in Syria, residents of the camp reach out to the world pleading for their voices to be heard. They are demanding that the Palestinian Liberation Organization and humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross and UNRWA act in order to secure a safe exit passage to save the remaining 18,000 residents in the camp.

Yarmouk camp once was hailed as the capital of the Palestinian Diaspora with over 160,000 Palestinians in the camp. In December 2012, the Syrian regime began imposing a siege on the camp, which has resulted in the direct death of 200 Palestinians. In addition to that, over 1000 were killed due to the continuous shelling, attacks on the camp and torture in regime jails.

To add onto the siege which has lasted over 700 days, residents in al-Yarmouk are now struggling to survive in the face of assaults by IS forces and their allies.

Through the use of social networks, mainly Facebook and Twitter, this ongoing offensive and monstrosity is being recorded through the voices of those in the camp. These posts are not present to record a story, they are attempts to utilize the tools present in order to seek help from organizations that pledge to secure human rights for all. More specifically, organizations that speak on behalf of Palestinians especially Palestinian refugees.

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/04/international-community-invasion#sthash.0X3JABe3.dpuf

[oberliner]

1. Future of Yarmouk unclear as PLO abandons aid convoy to besieged refugee camp

This week a horrific scene unfolded in Syria as a besieged Palestinian refugee camp fell under attack by ISIS and al-Nusra Front, another extremist Salafi group. When the fighters gained control of Yarmouk in Damascus, harrowing reports circulated of ISIS’s iconic beheadings and executions. This time it was Palestinian refugees who were victim and amid the chaos 18,000 Palestinians and Syrians were stranded and starving behind ISIS sharpshooters. In response, Palestinian leaders in the West Bank announced they were planning to coordinate a major convoy that would truck humanitarian aid inside of Yarmouk. Then yesterday, the Palestinian officials reversed their decision.

PLO spokesperson Ashraf Khatib told Mondoweiss it will no longer seek to distribute emergency relief inside Yarmouk. Instead a mission sent to Syria will work to secure a safe zone outside the camp’s immediate vicinity to aid Palestinians. While leaders in Ramallah are not telling refugees to flee and hope others will aid them inside the camp, the spokesperson noted, “Because the situation is getting worse the idea is not only to get the food in, but to get the people out.” As a result, when the supplies arrive refugees will be faced with the choice of abandoning Yarmouk in order to get aid.

The PLO has not set a specific location or timetable for the relief effort yet. This will be the first time the PLO will contribute to Yarmouk’s residents since the conflict in Syria broke out in spring 2011.

“We want to bring assistance to the camp, but at the same time we can’t when people have taken over the camp,” Khatib told Mondoweiss. “The PLO delegation in Syria now is trying to find the means to protect the remaining people in the camp to avoid any bloodshed. As you know, the camp itself is under a huge chaos. The extremists are from different groups, even we don’t know exactly who are these groups,” said Khatib. The spokesperson added that the PLO decided to intervene now on humanitarian grounds, but ultimately Yarmouk is under the “responsibility of the international community, the United Nations, to find protection mechanism.”

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/04/abandons-besieged-refugee#sthash.WBubpsiA.dpuf

[King_David]

2. Mondoweiss is a vanity site and not very reliable on the IP issue at all

Generally it should be avoided as an OP source and probably as any source altogether.

[oberliner]

3. What's a good pro-Palestinian site with information about Yarmouk that is reliable?

Is there a particular source that has been documenting the the ways in which the Palestinian Solidarity Committee and other like minded individuals have been reaching out to help the Palestinians in Yarmouk?

[shira]

4. Pigs will fly when u find any pro-Palestinian group reaching out to help.....

....these Palestinians in Yarmouk.

By pro-Palestinian, I mean those who howl the loudest at every possible Israeli infraction, real or imagined.

Mostly imagined.