No more a haven

摘要

For six decades, Yarmouk, a district on the southern edge of Damascus, was Palestine's capital in exile. The largest of 59 refugee camps dating back to the exodus of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948, it was bustling and stable. It was also where Palestinians were best integrated into a host country, with equal rights while preserving a corner of Palestine in Syria. Locals who moved into the camp and its surroundings, boosting its population from 160,000 to at least 500,000, picked up Palestinian accents.