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Nidal Betare, a Palestinian refugee, was born and raised in Syria’s Yarmouk camp and lived there until December 2011. He is now based in Washington, D.C., where he works as a senior programs manager at People Demand Change. He holds a master’s degree in political sociology from Damascus University and worked in Lebanon as a program coordinator for the Arab NGO Network for Development. He writes for U.S. and Arab journals.
This past June, the United Nations removed Yarmouk refugee camp from a list of what it terms “besieged areas” in Syria. The reason for this shift, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), is due to the availability of humanitarian aid via drop-offs at government checkpoints in nearby suburbs.
