Where have I gone wrong in laying down the law? What have I left ambiguous about where I stand? You can come to my wall & debate whether green bean casseroles are more or less gourmet than ravioli or whether Meryl Streep is as good an actress as they claim, but you cannot say one blessed word against Palestinians, Kashmiris, the Rohingya, refugees, or anyone being persecuted or subject to war, occupation, genocide. I don’t care if they’re not all saints. What matters is their human rights. In those rare moments when I try to be long suffering & tolerate debate with anyone on these matters, I end up in an agitated state & want to wring their bloody necks. If you work me into that state with your idiocies, I’ll take revenge by blocking your bony ass. Amen.

This end of the world-like scene is the eastern border of Gaza yesterday. Meanwhile the Giro d’Italia cycling tournament is going on in Israel whizzing by within a few kilometers from this scene.

Redouble your commitment to the economic boycott of Israel. Check every product to make sure it doesn’t originate in Israel.

(Photo from Palestinian Information Center on FB)

Fascist Vanessa Beeley rode into Douma with the Syrian army, hopped down off the convoy & went looking for civilians to interview about the White Helmets who she has an unnatural but well-remunerated antipathy toward. As Syrian soldiers escorted her around the city, all the civilians she spoke with told her the “White Helmets were embedded with all terrorist groups & operated in partnership with them, did not help civilians, worked only for the armed terrorist fighters.” Now that’s journalism for you! No wonder Bartlett & Beeley have amassed more exposés of their fraudulent ‘journalism’ than any other propagandists in human history. If it weren’t so truly tragic in its consequences for Syrians, it would be farce.

The rightwing British journalist Melanie Phillips was on British TV today claiming the accusation of Islamophobia is used to shut down those expressing “legitimate criticisms of the Muslim community.” Islamophobia, according to this sage Zionist, has no correlation with anti-Semitism which she says is a “unique derangement based entirely on lies & demonization” of Jews. There’s no point in asking someone so politically blind as a bat what those “legitimate criticisms” of Islam might be. Mark my words, she’d start with the veil. Color her stupid. Better yet, color her racist.

You can’t have reasoned discussion with Zionists, Assadists, Islamophobes, Hindutva nationalists, fascists. It’s a waste of adrenalin, a precious life commodity needed to keep indignation in working order. If they’ve grown to adult life still attracted to political manure, nothing you say, no matter how compelling or cogent, will persuade them. Nothing about their social hatreds will be persuasive to us. So when they poke their snouts around my wall & let out guttural utterances & other insults to the senses, the kindest cut of all is to block them Danno. Otherwise I have to pay for an exorcist or exterminator & they’re pricey these days.

This is Kashmiri journalist Gowhar Geelani on Indian TV news in a debate with a nationalist reporter & two other nationalist windbags. You don’t have to be able to follow the debate to enjoy the contrast he presents to the three of them trying to shout him down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogw3u0oeb10&app=desktop

One way of looking at the occupation of Kashmir by 700,000 soldiers & special forces–the highest ratio of soldiers to civilians in the world–is that it represents the Indian government’s measure of the level of political resistance among Kashmiris to colonialism & occupation. It represents India’s fear of unarmed civilian protesters. That’s why the hunt to kill operations, the pellet guns, the overkill. When the men with the guns are running scared, they become more lethal. That’s why Kashmiri activists have reached out on social media to bring others around the world to stand with them. Kashmiris have to know they aren’t alone as they stand on the front lines of one of the most important freedom struggles of our times.

(Photo from Go India Go Back wall on FB)

Kashmir is grieving. Indian occupying forces shot dead five militants & five civilians today in one of its hunt to kill operations in the Shopian district south of Srinagar. Thirty other civilians were injured by live ammo, pellet guns, & tear gas after the army swooped down on the village of Badigam on a tip from a snitch/informant. (May they rot in hell.) Some Kashmiris are calling this massacre Bloody Sunday after the 1972 slaughter in Derry, Northern Ireland when British occupation forces shot down 28 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest against internment of political activists. Many of those killed were shot while fleeing or were shot trying to help the wounded.

The biographies of all those killed are not yet reported except for the militant Mohammad Rafi Bhat, a university sociology teacher who only went underground with the rebels last Friday. He obviously went without martial or guerrilla training & probably had no idea how to handle a gun when the army surrounded the house where they were hiding. The five militants were given the chance to surrender to the army; the army even brought Bhat’s father to the site to prevail on his son to surrender. Not surrendering was certain death. They were all killed & the house razed to the ground. This is not the time to debate the political sagacity of urban guerrilla warfare as a strategy against occupation, but it is necessary to understand what it is that draws young men to leave work & family to engage in such a dangerous form of political activity–although as we know from the death of Adil Ahmed who was run over & killed by an armored vehicle, just walking down the street is a dangerous activity in Kashmir. Many have been shot & killed or injured just looking out the windows of their homes. Mostly the militants are inspired by indignation & opposition to occupation & frustration at the quotient exacted by it in human suffering. They hope, by engaging in guerrilla warfare, to rouse others to action & speed the day of liberation. It doesn’t have a stellar past, but its efficacy as a political strategy is for Kashmiris to decide.

Kashmir is grieving not just the political murders of ten people today but actually 14 in the past 48 hours since four were killed in a hunt to kill operation on Saturday. These are just the latest murderous encounters with Indian occupation forces who have killed at least 89 young men since January, both militants & civilians. That’s close enough to one person killed by the occupying army every day in Kashmir. Staggering levels of violence. Unimaginable levels of loss & grief. Hundreds of civilians have also been injured, some disfigured & disabled, by protesting at the sites of hunt to kill operations in order to protect the militants.

The most meaningful condolences we can render Kashmiris is renewed commitment to educating others to the justice of their struggle. Our heartfelt condolences for the loss of so many freedom fighters in just one weekend. May they Rest In Peace.

“under the Trump administration: 50,000 Hondurans, 9,000 Nepalese, 200,000 Salvadorans, 45,000 Haitians, and 2,500 Nicaraguans all being forced out by 2020″ ~ from the new york times.. some democracy.”

–Kuffir Nalgundwar

The lionhearted stone pelters of Kashmir & Palestine against brutal military occupation: to respect the stone pelters of Kashmir & Palestine is not to glorify violence but to honor self-defense against violence. The oppressed have a right to defend themselves by any & every means necessary. It appears most stone pelters are working class youth always on the front lines against tyranny. The stone is the weapon of Intifada. Those who condemn the stone pelter condemn Intifada.

(Photo is Palestinian child facing off against Israeli army. It was misidentified as a Kashmiri boy but such fearlessness is seen in Kashmiri & Palestinian kids.)