Damned if one can tell the difference between the Islamophobic vitriol Zionists use against Palestinians & what fascists & Assad supporters use against the Syrian revolution & now Kashmiris, the Rohingya, & Moro too. If you call yourself antiwar or socialist & are still standing with the Assad dictatorship, bend over & kiss your sorry ass goodbye. Nobody wants you when you’re walking dead & stink like hell.

An enigmatic dark moment in the Indian occupation of Kashmir: a menacing soldier & two small vulnerable children, one seemingly protecting the other. There was no caption to this March 2013 photo taken by Kashmiri photojournalist Abid Bhat. But it can stand as metaphor for the threat that racism, persecution, war, occupation, & genocide present to children, from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine, Kashmir, Burma, the refugee camps in Bangladesh, Somalia, Libya, to the Black & Latino communities in the US. Children & youth are never accidental victims but always, in one way or another, the intended targets.

Protect our children & stand against war, occupation, genocide.

(Photo by Abid Bhat, March 2013)

So let me tell you why cynicism about the human race just doesn’t work for me. Too many people are just too damn kind to me & it would be extreme ingratitude for me to think ill of most of us. The latest instance out of many: this is the last day of the month so like most retirees, my dough is low. No big deal. I sold an old phone to a pawn shop & headed to the supermarket for groceries–mind you, just to last a day. When the clerk rang it up, I was $1.55 over so she pulled out three apples. It was still .05 over. A young woman behind me in line said, “I’ve got your back. Five cents is nothing,” & she paid the clerk. I expressed my gratitude & gave her my name in case I ever win the lottery so she can look me up. We hugged & I left the market. As I pulled out of the lot, she ran up with the apples, gave me another hug, admired my dogs, & ran off. I was overwhelmed. Forever I’m in awe of the human race.

Call me old-fashioned, but a hijab-wearing Muslim woman appearing in the Miss England contest is not a step forward for Muslims nor for women. Beauty pageants–& I speak from experience, having been in one in my youth–are the equivalent of livestock shows. They reduce women to beauty, augmented with all kinds of prosthetics, & are designed to put women at odds with each other over the issue of ‘who is the fairest of us all.’

Let me reveal to you, as a senior woman, that the ancient secret of womanhood is that youth, by its very nature, is beautiful, the energy of youth, magical. We seniors have a different kind of magic beauty. But all women should be allowed to enjoy their beauty without invidious comparisons to others for any reason. You should look at your lovely face every day in the mirror, smile & savor your incarnation, & thank your lucky stars you were born to create, love, dance, sing, make this world a suitable place for kids.

(Just for the record, I love cosmetics just like other women, & love to doll myself up. What makes me sad is that what we are is never good enough & that they keep inventing new ways to enhance our beauty which only distract from our real beauty which is based in the quality of our character.)

Thank you to those who alerted us to the misrepresentation of the photo of an orphaned Syrian boy laying by his parents’ graves. I absolutely detest those who originally set these lies in motion since they are done not to expose human suffering under persecution, war, occupation, genocide but to discredit the claims of the oppressed. My friend who posted it was no part of that deception but merely expressing horror at what she thought the reality. I’ve deleted the photo so we are not a part of the lie. The oppressed have no need to invent atrocities. Those they endure are so unspeakable that most of us are unable to face them, even photographically.

The misrepresentation of Palestinians as terrorists goes all the back to 1948 when Zionist paramilitary terrorist groups drove Palestinians off their lands & set up the military state of Israel. Such misrepresentation was a feature of media & film, including the vile propaganda rubbish “Exodus” where such actors as Paul Newman fed the lies & romantic myth about the Old Testament being a land deed to Israel. Though it was arrant rubbish, it carried more political weight because of the holocausts of WWII & was partly a way for governments like the US & Europe to cover for their culpability.

Yusuf Elhajjar, who speaks Norwegian, here shows the subtleties of language & outright falsifications used in Norwegian reporting about the deadly attacks on unarmed protesters in Gaza, which turns Palestinians into aggressors rather than freedom fighters & armed Israeli snipers into champions of self-defense.:
*****
“NORWEGIAN NEWS! This Palestinian guy said in Arabic the following: ”We are created by Allah as fearless people. We’ll stay here until our demands are responded to, until our rights are restored”. Whilst on the website of the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, the translation in Norwegian language goes completely different (as shown on this screenshot). For those who do not speak Norwegian, the translation is: ”We are now ready to cross the border. We will not wait, we have crossed it before, and we are going to do it again”.

This is a clear manipulation of what is being said by Palestinians in Gaza, and it could be done on purpose. NB! Palestinian civilians have never crossed the eastern border of Gaza. Yesterday, Friday 30.03.2018, Israeli occupation forces shot and killed 16 Palestinian civilians in Gaza and injured over 1400 others, who were demonstrating peacefully. For more info and to see the video that includes this wrong translation, please check out the link for the news article in the first comment. Peace and love to you from the oppressed people of Gaza/Palestine.”

https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/sorgedag-i-gaza-etter-at-16-er-drept/69663985

These are photos of the 15 Palestinians gunned down by Israeli snipers yesterday at the Great Return March. Most of these young men were between 17 & 35 years of age. The march was the launching event of six weeks of peaceful protests demanding the right of return for Palestinians forcibly expelled from their lands since 1948 & their descendants. Israel, calling the march a gathering of terrorists organized by Hamas, used drone technology & snipers with live ammo, rubber bullets, tear gas. Palestinian health officials report that of the 1,400 injured, 773 were shot with live ammunition. That kind of arsenal against thousands of marchers including elderly, little kids, family groups, all of whom were unarmed & marching peacefully. Israel & its media sycophants think they discredit the protesters if they say Hamas helped organize the march. How can Hamas organizing a peaceful protest be damning?

Stand with Palestinians in demanding Israel stop the violence against peaceful protesters. Time to hit the streets across the world for the next six weeks demanding no violence against protesters, the right of return for refugees, the end of military occupation, & self-determination for Palestine.

(Photos from Twitter of Muhammad Smiry)

A profoundly sad story about Dilshada Sheikh who died today after waiting nearly 26 years for her husband Bashir Ahmad Shehikh, a working man picked up by Indian military forces in June 1992 & forcibly disappeared. Dilshada was an active member of the Association of Parents for Disappeared Persons (APDP) since 2010 & regularly participated in their monthly sit-in protests in Srinagar. APDP activists say they will continue to protest on behalf of her husband.

May she Rest In Peace.

Does it surprise anyone that Israeli snipers are targeting Palestinian children in the Great Return March? Just like they targeted children in the 2014 murderous bombing siege of Gaza. The brutalization, one may say, the genocide of children is the very nature of Israeli policy against Palestinians.

Stand with Palestinians. Prepare to hit the streets demanding Israel end the violence against unarmed, peaceful protesters.

(Photos from Twitter of Great Return March @GreatReturnMa)

Just after three newsreaders made a presentation about bias in media to control what people think, the local CBS news affiliate presented coverage of the Palestinian Great Return March in Gaza which turned unarmed, peaceful protesters into inciters of Israeli military violence, including drones & snipers. The protest was organized by a large network of activists internationally, including Hamas. Events are planned for 46 days from today until May 15th which marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) when Zionist paramilitary forces drove 750,000 Palestinians off their lands to set up the state/military fortress of Israel in 1948.

It is clearly going to be necessary to hold rallies around the world in solidarity demanding that Israel end the violence against unarmed protesters & the right of return for all Palestinian refugees forced off their lands whose families still live in refugee camps in several countries.

Photos are participants at Great Return March today in Gaza: elderly, children, young families.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Palestinians. Honor the cultural & economic boycott of Israel.

(Photos from Twitter wall of Great Return March @GreatReturnMa)