Eyewitness account from 2005: Palestinian refugee camps are refugee camps “in name only”

Official PA TV host: “When you visited Syria and saw these areas – is it really a refugee camp like people imagine? When we say 'refugee camp' like the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp [in Damascus]… people think that this is a refugee camp. Is it really a refugee camp? What is the atmosphere like there in the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp? We want people to know how it is in the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp.”

Resident of Gaza, originally from the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria Amani Qassem: “No, it is a refugee camp in name only.”

Official PA TV host: “It is a refugee camp in name only, exactly. Tell us the real details.”

Resident of Gaza, originally from the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria Amani Qassem: “At the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp you find everything: A market, stores, restaurants, gatherings, people... No, it is the opposite [of a refugee camp].”

[Official PA TV, The Land of Homes, Oct. 26, 2019]

Note that Amani Qassem referred to her memories of the refugee camp from a visit there in 2005 before the Syrian civil war and the subsequent humanitarian crisis in Syria.