My paper examines the controversies surrounding plans by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to replace the crumbling World War II barracks that were at the origin of Palestinian refugee camp of Neirab Camp in northern Syria with apartment buildings. UNRWA argues that apartment buildings will solve the humidity, flooding, leaking, lack of sunlight and overcrowding faced by barrack residents and liberate space for larger roads, green areas and playgrounds which are nonexistent in the camp. In my paper, I reflect on the tensions between the goals of this UNRWA sponsored project which seeks to transform Neirab Camp into a space of “healthy modern living” and the views of some Palestinian refugees in Neirab who see the project as threatening to erase the traces of exile and dispossession that are constitutive of Neirab’s landscape and of their identity as refugees. These refugees argue that “Neirab must keep its features as a [Palestinian Refugee] Camp” and not be transformed in a homogeneous space that would resemble a typical urban Syrian neighborhood and blend in to its surroundings. On the other hand, there are Palestinians who wonder if holding on to their refugee identity must necessarily entail giving up some of the comforts associated with ‘modern living.’ By analyzing the different viewpoints regarding how to improve the space of the Neirab barracks, my paper examines whether is possible to come up with a notion of progress which bridges the goal of improving Neirab Camp’s infrastructure with Neirab’s inhabitants’ commitment to maintaining their difference as Palestinian refugees and preserving their right of return to their pre-1948 homes.