Introduction

On 5 October, a Damascus governorate official announced that authorities will now permit former residents of Yarmuk in South Damascus to return to their homes in the near future – albeit with caveats. Return will be subject to three conditions. As such, former residents must acquire:

• A study demonstrating the structural safety of the property;

• proof of ownership of the property;

• security approval from the Military Security branch in Damascus’ Adawi neighborhood.

Reconstruction plans for Yarmuk have been beset by delays. However, on 25 June, Damascus governorate approved an organizational plan for Yarmuk (and al-Qaboun in the east of the capital). The plan envisaged the full-scale razing and rebuilding of whole areas of Yarmuk, putting at risk the property rights of tens of thousands of former residents. The plan prompted widespread backlash from former camp residents, Palestinian factions and civil society formations; Damascus governorate received tens of thousands of formal objections from former residents, forcing authorities to attempt to assuage public opinion. While rumors state that Damascus governorate has since actually cancelled the organizational plan for Yarmuk altogether, an earlier statement signed by the Damascus governor on 24 August stated that it had simply been “postponed.”3 The governorate formed a committee tasked with reviewing the organizational plan.

Yarmuk has its own especial context, given its history as Syria’s largest and most significant Palestinian community, which raises the possibility that Damascus will treat Yarmuk differently to other areas of the capital slated for reconstruction. That said, the government does appear to be more sensitive to criticism of its reconstruction policies than previously, although it’s not expected that this will result in substantive changes to the content of these policies.

Although the future of the Yarmuk plan remains in doubt, structural barriers stand in the way of return – in particular, the burden of proof required for former residents to verify and maintain property ownership. As such, the latest announcement should be seen as an attempt by Damascus governorate to assuage public anger over the organizational plan applied to Yarmuk in June but without substantially changing the status quo of reconstruction in the camp. It remains unclear what housing, land and property (HLP) legislation will be applied in Yarmuk, after Damascus governorate signaled that redevelopments would not be under Law 10/2018 (as previously stated) but rather under Law 23/2015 and Law 5/1982. This effectively means that even residents who verify ownership of their properties will be denied key protections, such as alternative housing and rent payment support (as was previously promised).

Other potential spoilers to return exist, however. Local sources report that Yasser Qashlaq, a Palestinian businessman in Damascus with links to Syrian intelligence, has started buying-up vacant properties in Yarmuk and the neighboring area of Al-Hajar al-Aswad – another area of the capital’s southern suburbs previously slated for reconstruction under Law 10/2018 and/or other laws.

While the status of Yarmuk’s reconstruction plans now remain in doubt, news about Qashlaq’s involvement in the local real estate market should ring alarm bells. Although a lesser-known government-affiliated business figure in Damascus, Qashlaq is said to have close ties to Syrian intelligence as well as Hezbollah and the Iranians, and he is also secretary-general of the Free Palestine Movement – an organization that has, in the years since its foundation in 2003, turned its hand to everything from political campaigning (around Palestinian nationalist and anti-occupation causes) to service provision and military recruitment. Since 2011, though, the movement is perhaps better known because of its increasingly influential Damascus-based armed wing, led by Sa’ad Abdel Aal.