Santiago Montag is an Argentine geographer, journalist, and photographer. His work focuses on conflict, the environment, and humanitarian issues. He has published in magazines such as New Lines Magazine, Espacio Angular, and Nueva Sociedad, among others.
Reporting from Yarmouk — the devastated Palestinian refugee district on the edge of Damascus — Jacobin follows the Palestinian House, a grassroots reconstruction initiative, as it leads efforts to dig wells and restore water in a camp abandoned by the state.
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is widely hailed as an Islamist radical gone moderate. The plaudits reflect not the real strength of Syrian democracy but international players’ belief that he can keep order.
The al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria is effectively an open-air prison for 50,000 people suspected of ties to ISIS. The Syrian Democratic Forces are struggling to deal with them — and now the Trump administration is cutting US funding.