Massive protests which preceded & followed the funerals demanded India end the occupation. Indian police responded with tear gas & arrested at least 20 young people for “stone pelting”. There was also a complete shutdown of shops, schools, & government offices to honor the two men.

The truth of the matter is we can’t trust Indian officials when they claim the two activists engaged in a shootout. The men were more likely unarmed & shot down in cold blood. There are dozens of these alleged gun fights every year in Kashmir which media says idiotic things to explain. Al Jazeera said of one incident, “Indian soldiers & police received a tip-off that rebels opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir were hiding”–so they went after them & killed them all. The shootouts are often at a house or in a wooded area where Indian police claim they got a surveillance tip that separatists are hiding out–so they go & shoot the place up & kill everybody. What happened to due process? What about the right to oppose Indian rule without being assassinated? Do the people of Kashmir not have a single right? No they don’t.

According to two Kashmiri human rights groups, Indian military personnel are responsible for 1,080 extrajudicial killings, numerous cases of torture, sexual assault, & disappearances–just in a four-year period. The groups are asking the Indian government & UN to investigate over 1,000 cases of abuse by the Indian army which operates in Kashmir with “institutional impunity” because they are protected from prosecution by an emergency law in force since 1990. That law allows Indian military & paramilitary forces to raid homes & kill on suspicion of illegal actions.

Our fullest solidarity with the people of Kashmir. End the Indian occupation.

May the two Kashmiri freedom fighters Rest in Peace.

(Photo by Dar Yasin/AP)

Our fullest solidarity with the independence struggle of Kashmiris. End the Indian occupation!

(Photo from AFP)

That ‘lying till it becomes truth’ schtick always flew & became incorporated into history so that now we have entire nations with twisted views of colonialism & war: colonial marauding became salvation from backwardness & barbarism; war became emancipation.

But then the anti-colonial struggle entered history & though many have been ruthlessly defeated, not all were, & they have left a legacy of opposition to racism & colonialism that has not been reversed or undone. Social media & the internet are often attributed with spreading the truth & creating solidarity–& their role cannot be denied. But were it not for the intransigence of anti-colonial activists, including many who died in struggle, we would not today recognize truth from the horse manure of malicious lies.

There are hundreds of photos of Palestinian activists armed only with rocks against Israeli military forces with the most sophisticated arsenal in the world. Miko Peled, a former Israeli soldier now a Palestinian solidarity activist, has said, “The IDF are not an army; they’re the most well-funded terrorist organization in the world.”

The top photo here is Palestinian protesters today in the occupied West Bank village of Si’eer (north of Hebron); the bottom photo is IDF soldiers facing off against those protesters. Take a look at the faces of those soldiers. Psycho is the first thought that comes to mind; armed to the teeth against unarmed kids is the second.

International solidarity must build on the legacy & courage of Palestinian activists & stand undaunted against the barrage of media lies & the endless propaganda initiatives that will be thrown up to discredit the Palestinian struggle.

Build the economic, cultural, & academic boycott (BDS) of Israel initiated by Palestinian activists & continue rallies demanding no aid of any kind to apartheid Israel; end the violence; end the occupation!

(Both photos by Abed Al Hashlamoun/EFE/EPA)

The antiwar movement never viewed soldiers & veterans as enemies (whether the army was conscription or not) but rather as men & women who had to be won over to antiwar/anti-occupation perspectives. Their testimony condemning war has a moral authority which should not be squandered by moralizing denunciations about war crimes. Of course they committed human rights crimes; that’s the nature of war. The issue is whether we want to denounce them to salve moralism or embrace them as those who can speak powerfully to the savagery of war & occupation & thus strengthen opposition against them.

We know the young are indoctrinated with racism & xenophobia in their military training. But when confronting other human beings, roughing them up, assaulting them (young & old), shooting them down, many soldiers who were not raised to be psycho feel profound guilt, grief, & remorse. Many cannot live with that & take their own lives; others who cannot break with racist ideology simply drink themselves to death or engage in antisocial behaviors.

Our job is to rebuild the antiwar movement & Palestinian solidarity–not to build a wall of condemnation between us & veterans. The point is to provide another political explanation to them & incorporate their experiences & voices to weaken the drumbeats of social hatred used to turn them into cannon fodder for colonialism.

This elderly woman is arriving at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing from Turkey. Others have landed with wheelchairs or on crutches. Many are probably arriving ill from the wet & chill. Arriving on a dinghy is not quite like touring the Aegean on a yacht.

One heartening sight is the number of European volunteers helping families disembark in Greece & volunteers along the route providing aid. Just because media has a blackout on the refugee crisis from Africa to Italy & Spain & less coverage on the Turkey to northern Europe route, we should not in any way turn our attention away. We must continue demanding our governments open the damn borders & provide every social service, especially immediate health care & shelter to refugees who have already endured more than any human being should in one lifetime.

Immigration is a human right. Re-building the international antiwar movement is imperative to stay the hand of militarism causing such massive dislocation but until we succeed in doing that, our demand must be “Open the borders”! No human being is illegal.

(Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)

Just so there’s no confusion, the US has every obligation along with the EU to provide in every way for these refugees since its monstrous wars created the problem in the first place. Where is Obama who expressed such concern for Israeli citizens allegedly being assailed by Palestinian “terrorists”? Oh that’s right! He’s on the other side.

Immigration is a human right! Open the damn borders!

(Top photo of refugees boarding train by Boris Grdanoski/AP; bottom photo of Iraqi refugee arriving in Greece from Turkey by Dimitris Michalakis/Reuters)

Graffiti art will always be used for political protest when human beings are denied expression of their democratic rights in other ways. Charlie Hebdo could learn a thing or two about caricature from these murals if they could ever sever their art from racism & social hatred & use it instead to campaign for the oppressed.

(Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty)

The Abraham Fund, which refers to Israeli Palestinians only as “Arabs” (because Zionists insist Palestinians do not exist as a people), is a Zionist organization which works with the Israeli government in phony peaceful coexistence schemes, including with Israeli police projects about policing Palestinian citizens. It can now be said with some assurance that their projects are not serving Israeli Palestinians.

Those Palestinian supporters who want to continue their cell phone plans with CREDO should begin to put pressure on them to cease all support to The Abraham Fund & to any other Zionist organizations they support & may want to ask for full disclosure of all organizations which they contribute to. Their determination of who is “progressive” might not correspond with your own.