Palestinian camps must maintain their distance

The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus has become a battle field, after peaceful protests held by the camp's residents against the Syrian regime turned into bloody clashes between those protesters and the Syrian security forces. Clashes left nine protesters dead and dozens injured and this bloodshed, not unexpectedly, intensified the rage of Palestinian refugees against the Syrian regime together with those Palestinian factions siding with it. This latest toll of Palestinian casualties combined with the 17 Palestinians killed recently by the Free Syrian Army in clashes against the Palestinian pro-Assad group called The Liberation Army, brings the total number of Palestinian casualties to more than 150 since the people's uprising against Bashar al-Assad broke out in Syria. Apart from the deaths,  hundreds have been injured and an unknown number detained. This is not the first time that Palestinian refugee camps have witnessed clashes between refugees and troops of the Syrian regime. Daraa camp too endured fierce clashes between the two sides during the early stages of the uprising. Other clashes took place earlier at the Raml camp in Latakia. However, the latest clashes at Yarmouk were the most violent out of all, witnessing a large Palestinian participation. Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, The main Palestinian groups distanced the camps from the internal conflict between the Syrians. Leading figures from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the People's Front and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, made it clear to the Syrians, both the regime and the opposition, that they must respect the wishes of the Palestinian community in Syria not to become embroiled in this conflict. This reasonable position taken by the Palestinian leaders, relatively protected the camps from being part of what is now officially defined  as a "civil war". But unfortunately this protection didn't hold for long, so what has really changed the scene? Needless to say, the killing machine is reaching its climax from both sides - the regime and the military opposition. Added to this the latest development which has seen the battleground move to the capital Damascus, it is obvious that keeping the camps distanced from what is happening is becoming more and more unlikely, as these camps are directly attached to the districts and neighbourhoods where the fighting is taking place. This is pretty much the case at the Basateen camp in Damascus, which is very close to the neighbourhoods  of Midan, Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun, which are currently witnessing fierce clashes between the FSA and the regime's army which stormed the Basateen camp several times searching for Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters, while the camp itself has received hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi families who fled their homes seeking safety in the homes of Palestinians and the UNRWA schools, and there is confirmed information that many FSA soldiers and officers have resorted to the camp too. The demacation between the Palestinian camps in Syria and the surroundings have disappeared, and the "neutral" Palestinian identity of these camps is fading day by day. The regime, which is becoming more and more desperate, has completely lost control of its military and security troops fighting on the ground, and these troops are shooting indiscriminately at  "suspected target" without paying any attention to humanitarian considerations, and of course these troops will hardly show more respect to the residents of the Palestinian camps than they used to show to the Syrian residents of Douma, Harasta and Kafr Soussa. On the other hand, the camps themselves are full of Palestinian "Shabiha" fighters who belong to the pro-Assad factions, in addition to the agents recruited by Syrian intelligence within the Palestinian camps. Together they have been preparing to do the dirty work once they are given the orders, and it appears they have finally got them. The PLO factions in addition to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have made great efforts to keep the situation under control and retain self-determination among the Palestinian refugees in Syria, as they still remember the tragic lesson of the Palestinian citizens in Kuwait, who supported the Iraqi invasion in 1990 then were forced to leave the country after Saddam Hussein was defeated. These efforts still have some influence in retaining a minimum level of control on the Palestinian camps, but this control is becoming more fragile, as the rage escalates dramatically and could reach a level which would be beyond any sort of control. We are not prepared  to allow Palestinians to become exiled again. Six decades of exile are more than enough,  and this is why their reasonable leaders must act now to distance the camps from all fronts involved in the Syrian crisis. The Palestinians will never return to their camps if they are deported, and their new destination will not be different from that of the Palestinians who fled from Iraq after the United States invasion, who have settled in one of the farthest places on the planet, Iceland. It is pretty much predictable that the Palestinians will not be welcomed in any other Arab country if they are forced to leave Syria, and in their own interests, they should keep their heads down against any provocation. Both of the rivals in the Syrian crisis are attempting to draw the Palestinians to their side of the conflict, but they have to remember that a crime remains a crime if it is committed in a Syrian village, but the same crime will have "global dimensions" directly connected to the Arab-Israeli conflict, if it is committed in a Palestinian camp. Obviously not because Palestinian blood is more valuable than Syrian blood, but because the shedding of Palestinian blood will push many people to have thoughts towards a "conspiracy theory." Palestinian figures who have no credibility in Damascus, Gaza or Ramallah have gone too far in siding with the Syrian rival parties, but all those figures are minor, and none of them represents a broad front within the Palestinian nation or the Palestinian patriotic and Islamist movements, so it is neither wise nor acceptable to make the Palestinian people responsible or pay the price for for the actions and opinions of those minor figures. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.