The Yarmouk Camp in Syria

It's been a sad couple of days of Arabic news. Today on the BBC Arabic, it was one heart-breaking story after another, including the one of the Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.

This camp has been under siege for years since earlier in the conflict in Syria. And from previous reports on the BBC Arabic, the people there are slowly starving to death.

Here is a report that I summarized from over a year ago, in which they were actually holding funerals for people who had starved to death: http://arabicnewsinenglish.blogspot.com/2014/02/yarmouk.html

And now, Daa-esh, aka ISIS, has taken control of this refugee camp, even though it is right near to Damascus - really close to where I guess the Syrian president is holed up.

They had a big debate on this on the BBC Arabic today. First, they spoke to an official from the Syrian government. He said: We've been taking such good care of Yarmouk camp (VERY contrary to news reports.)

He continued: We never had a siege on the camp, people could come in and out, and now look what has happened, the people there were stockpiling weapons all along and they are friends with Daa-esh.

Then, the BBC Arabic spoke to a man who was against the government, and also against Daa-esh. He said: To think of the Syrian government claiming they've done any good for the camp! The Syrian government is the reason people have been starving to death. To say they've let people in and out of the camp when really it's been under siege all this time. And tell me this, the Syrian government has all this time been controlling the Yarmouk camp, controlling what gets in and out. And now, all of a sudden, Daa-esh is able to take over? Can you tell me why? Can you tell me how it can be that Daa-esh took over the camp without being allowed to do so by the Syrian government itself?

And then the man from the Syrian government had to respond, basically just repeating his earlier speech about how the government is perfect and has never done anything wrong.