Assad’s “Attack” on Palestinian Refugees : A History of Oppression ?

A spokesman for The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that some were forced to leave on the orders of the Syrian authorities while some, he said, fled after they heard gunfire.

The UNRWA spokesperson also said at least four people had died, while more than 5000 people had fled the camp and called on the UN agency to gain immediate access to the site, the BBC reported.

"We have no idea where these people are, we have no idea how many of them are wounded, are dying, are elderly, are women, are children," UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness told the BBC.

The media also cited a video posted on a social media website which appears to show troops and tanks firing at the al-Rami refugee camp, although the footage cannot be independently verified.

Some 30 people have reportedly died in Latakia in a three-day military attack. Syria says it is tackling gangs.

The Telegraph reported residents of Latakia as saying the camp had been targeted by Syrian security forces and UNRWA claimed between five and ten thousand people had fled with a handful of deaths reported.

The move has angered the Palestinian authorities and a spokesperson called on "the Syrian authorities to take measures which prevent the violation of the lives of Palestinian refugees in al-Raml camp in Latakia", the official WAFA news agency reported.

On Monday, there were also reports of a clampdown in the capital Damascus, with people being arrested randomly in the Jobar district.

The Syrian move was once again criticised by the international communitity.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Syria that military operations against protesters must stop "immediately and unconditionally", suggesting that Ankara is becoming less and less tolerant of Assad.

In Washington, White House spokesman John Carney said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must "cease the systematic violence, mass arrests and the outright murder of his own people."

Latakia was one of the first cities to rise against the government in mid-March and despite attempts by the regime to quiet the uprising; strong anti-Assad protests are still taking place.

The city has a population of approximately 600,000 and while the majority are Sunni Muslim some of the areas are also dominated by President Assad's minority Alawite community.

One resident of Ramel told the Associated Press news agency: "We are being targeted from the ground and the sea. The shooting is intense. We cannot go out. They are raiding and breaking into people's homes."

Assad's latest move however proves that the regime uses the state of uprising to lauch crackdowns on the opposition but also on any other movement it disagree with or it sees as problematic.

Syria has always had a different point of view on Palestine than other Arab countries in the region, including Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The Ba'ath party, under Hafez al-Assad, translated its Arab Nationalism ideology into a regional and international policy which laid claims to Syria and the Greater Syria. This in turn, translated in the party's attitudes and policies towards Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine .

Analysts have pointed out that the policies of Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar have been known to systematically undermine independent Palestinian national leadership while trying to gain influence over the Palestinian cause and movement.

The assumption that the Palestinian cause was subordinate to a broader Arab revolution, and that Palestinians should be a vanguard of transformation in the entire Arab world first never gelled well with the Palestine Liberation Movement (PLO) will to take decisions independently and tensions started to raise between the Syrian Ba'athist regime and the PLO under Yasser Arafat's leadership, with Arafat launching attacks or taking decisions without Syria's consultation.

In the 1970s, for example, In Lebanon, Syria sided with anti-PLO elements and launched a military intervention, in the "war of the camps" when the PLO tried to reassert its presence in Lebanon following the 1982 Israeli invasion.

In the late 1980s and early 90s , the PLO's strategy changed and the party shifted its position from one based on armed struggle to one based on negotiation .

When the PLO entered the Oslo Accords with Israel, Syria widely rejected the move, and in response, shifted its support to more right-wing Islamist groups such as Hamas.

The Syrian uprising has it seems radicalised the Assad regime's position towards the Palestinian even more as the leader was said to be angered at Hamas's refusal to stand against the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and its will to recognize independent Palestinian statehood, which stand in opposition to almost a century of Syrian policy that has opposed such independence.

Pro-Assad forces have already been accused of killing of at least 11 Palestinians at the Yarmouk refugee camp in June and it seems unlikely Assad will change its attitude as long as he stays in power.