Palestinians in the Syrian Uprising the situation on the ground

Abstract

At the outset of the Syrian civil war, Syria was home to 495,970 Palestinian refugees (149,822 living in official camps),¹ most of whom had entered, or were descended from individuals who had entered the country in 1948. These refugees, while not technically Syrian citizens, were closely integrated into the Syrian state, enjoying effectively identical rights to Syrian citizens, but retaining a close ideological affiliation to the Palestinian national cause. The Syrian regime also maintained and funded a number of Palestinian resistances organizations, while relating to others in various different ways over time.²