Tag Archives: Palestinian solidarity

Apocalypse Gaza

Beit Hanoun August 24 2014

This looks like a scene from the apocalypse but it’s Beit Hanoun, a city in northern Gaza taken on August 18th. The family with the horse & cart are fleeing–but of course, with no place to go. Gaza remains surrounded by an apartheid barrier. The UN assures us no war crimes were committed; Israel texted & phoned people a few minutes before they went berserk with the bombs.

There are photos now emerging of Palestinians sleeping on top of rubble, sitting despondent & forlorn because they have no place to live & there is no way in hell they can clean up the mess & rebuild while Gaza is still under Israeli blockade. The blockade makes sure they don’t even have sufficient food & medicines–& there are over 10,000 seriously injured people.

Sustained solidarity work must include rallies, educational activities, & above all, evangelizing for the economic boycott (BDS) of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729). Many left groups shame themselves by opposition to BDS & even campaign against it claiming it hurts Israeli workers. They refuse to even build teach-ins which would show they stand on the wrong side of history & justice. They not only betray solidarity but expose the blithering idiocy of their politics & put the last nail in their own coffins. Good riddance to them.

One can stand with Israeli apartheid & ethnic cleansing or one can stand with Palestinian justice. There is no middle ground. Not even if you think you carry the mantle of Karl Marx. For that matter, if Marx knew the betrayals conducted in his name he would turn over in his grave so fast he’d become an important source of energy.

(Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP)

Operation Ethnic Cleansing continues

Gaza bombing August 23 2014

The very worst of this phase of Operation Ethnic Cleansing has abated in Gaza but it has not ended & bombing sorties continue to take down buildings. Several people have died. Meanwhile Israel is on a propaganda blitz to attempt to undo the damage done by its murderous over four week rampage.

This propaganda offensive is sucking on the dregs because it is so hard to counter the hundreds of gruesome images of Palestinian children tweeted around the world. The primary intent is to vilify Hamas which has its problems but is not one iota responsible for this rampage. Some of the reports in “respectable” media seem more like Onion or Mad Magazine pieces; other reports draw on the methods of the scurrilous & anti-Semitic “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” invented by czarist agents in Russia (in 1903) & which continue to feed social hatred against Jews.

One report is that a Hamas official admitted to the kidnapping of the three Zionist teens in the West Bank. Patent & provable nonsense. Another punk Palestinian who claims he’s the son of a Hamas founder is being interviewed all over the place, pretending he’s got the goods on Hamas crimes. Problem is the guy is disturbed & a traitor who worked within Palestinian politics as an undercover agent for Israel. Fox News & The Times of Israel report that a secret letter smuggled from a Palestinian within Gaza claims Hamas used forced labor to build the tunnels & then killed them all so they couldn’t identify the location of the tunnels. One video purportedly shows a Muslim child teaching how to “behead the infidel” per the Quran. Reports are also attempting to identify Hamas with ISIS in Iraq & Syria. This kind of rubbish is pouring out everywhere to sow confusion & discord. But the bombing in Gaza & the deaths of hundreds of men, women, & children in the most barbaric ways speak louder than dozens of crazy-assed lies.

Schools are opening up in just days & it’s the best time to plan educational events because many people of good want to understand what the media tries so damn hard to make inscrutable. Rallies need to continue & we need to beat the drums loudly for the boycott (BDS) of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729)

These young men–of the “Hamas age”, so Israel considers them outside the parameters of ethnic cleansing–are trying to douse a fire after an Israeli airstrike today.

(Photo by Adel Hana/AP)

Palestinian Authority troops serve proxy for Israel

Hebron West Bank August 22 2014

If there was ever any doubt about the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by Mahmoud Abbas playing both sides between Israel & the Palestinians, their conduct during the murderous assault on Gaza should suffice to indict them as traitors. Abbas, who had just signed a unity agreement with Hamas, let himself be played for an international fool & flouted that agreement by denouncing Hamas while Gaza was being bombed mercilessly & running around like a chicken without a head trying to broker peace on Israel’s terms of continued occupation & bombing. The PA is not playing both sides at all so much as serving proxy for the Israeli military. It will be a glorious day when Abbas & his operation are run out of the West Bank on a rail & Palestinians forge a leadership worthy of their historic struggle.

This photo is a protest in Hebron, West Bank in solidarity with Gaza against renewed Israeli bombing. Believe it or not, these are not Israeli soldiers but rather PA riot cops firing tear gas at protesters. Throughout the latest phase of Operation Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza, PA riot cops were deployed repeatedly to counter solidarity protests in the West Bank by halting & interrupting demonstrations, forcing marches to detour routes to avoid confrontations, & chasing & attacking protesters with tear gas & stun grenades, & arresting & jailing activists.

When you witness the treacheries of the PA & understand the political problems of Hamas it can seem discouraging & prospects unpromising. Leadership is always the great dilemma of social struggle. It can be said that forging a committed, uncompromising leadership team is the most important political problem human beings face everywhere in struggles against tyranny. Numerous just movements have been hoodwinked, derailed, or betrayed by unworthy leaders. The treacheries are legion–& that doesn’t include the outright bunglers or those bought for a song or a little sweet talk.

The Palestinian movement has a history & activists who show they have everything it takes, especially the intransigence required & the political savvy to counter US & Israeli scheming at their expense. With the monumental & historic shift of international solidarity, Palestinians no longer stand alone & will be able to forge leadership that can lead intifada to making real the vision of a democratic secular state where Jews & Palestinians live in peace.

Stand with Palestinian justice by continuing rallies & speak-outs & evangelize for the economic boycott of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729).

(Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images)

More evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza: are you listening Ban Ki-moon?

Gaza boy with Israeli bullets August 19 2014

No this is not a Hamas fighter but he a Palestinian teenager in Gaza. Media (including the NY Times) did an analysis of the death count in the latest phase of Operation Ethnic Cleansing to counter the gruesome image of so many children riddled with shrapnel & dismembered by bombs. They concluded with a smug, amoral sense of righteousness that teens–the Hamas age–were the greatest number killed. And rabid Zionists around the world heaved with vindication–not that infants had been spared, but that so many teens had died.

Israel, the US, European leaders, & that creepy Ban Ki-moon claim all the deaths were regrettable & “collateral” (a psychotic military concept invented by a US stink tank for Iraq) & entirely the political fault of Hamas. They’re beating that alibi to death to make a racist lie & vilification a cliché that becomes history.

But evidence of war crimes from Gaza testify otherwise. This young boy wraps his head with a bandolier of spent bullets left by the Israeli army near his family’s bombed out home in Beit Hanoun. Beit Hanoun is not far across the apartheid wall from the hills of Sderot, Israel, where residents made an international spectacle of their psychoses by cheering on ethnic cleansing from lawn chairs. Did the most sophisticated, high-tech military in the world use bullets to destroy those alleged cement tunnels? Or were they more likely used for “collateral” destruction–like this young boy?

Stand with Palestinians, as they stand with justice in Ferguson. Don’t let history & justice pass you by. Keep rallying to demand Israel cease the bombing & end the blockade of Gaza; & evangelize for the economic boycott of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729).

(Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP)

Exodus to nowhere in Gaza

Exodus in Gaza August 16 2014

Israel has temporarily abated Operation Ethnic Cleansing but solidarity activitists cannot be deceived, nor our protests ended. As long as the Israeli blockade prevails, Gaza will be unable to get equipment to remove the mountains of cement, will be unable to rebuild, thousands will be homeless with no place to live or go the toilet, will have insufficient food, no medicines or medical equipment to address life-threatening injuries reportedly sustained by over 10,000 people–& no rest from continued bombing sorties.

Media coverage of the Israeli rampage is like dispatches from a parallel universe. The US Pentagon always waited a respectable amount of time (at least a couple months each time) before they shifted explanations for the US-NATO war in Afghanistan, later echoed in media. Israel is more impetuous in their deceits. Reuters now reports: “Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8 in response to a surge of rocket attacks by Gaza’s dominant Hamas Islamists.” This is the first we’ve heard of those rockets in July. Wasn’t the stated reason on July 8th that the assault was retaliation for the Hamas kidnapping of three Zionist kids in the West Bank? A kidnapping we (& Israel) always knew Hamas did not commit?

Israel needs the specter of “Hamas terrorism” to maintain apartheid & conduct ethnic cleansing. If Hamas did not exit, Israel would have to invent it as a foil for their barbarism. On the slight chance the unity agreement signed in April between the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by traitor Mahmoud Abbas & Hamas worked out, Israel launched a bombing assault on northern Gaza–a little over two months before Operation Protective Edge–& there were no Hamas rockets even alleged. Netan-psycho threatened Abbas: “Does he want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel? You can have one but not the other.” To make Abbas’s choice for him & to maintain the specter of Hamas terrorism, Israel used whatever artifice it could to prevent Palestinian unity.

The crisis of leadership plagues social movements around the world. It has stature as the greatest political dilemma of our era–& has been for a very long time. We see it played out in every political venue from the labor movement to social justice movements to the great struggles for self-determination like in Palestine–& Ferguson. The political weaknesses of Hamas or the PA are not reason to truncate support for the just demands of the Palestinian people. We render them solidarity & trust them to resolve their own leadership problems.

Gruesome images that continue to circulate remind us of the horrors Gaza just endured & we witnessed. It’s a reminder not to retreat from solidarity now that the worst of bombing has abated. The bombing will not cease & the blockade will not end without our continued active solidarity.

This little girl waits in a minibus as her family prepares to leave their neighborhood in Gaza City where the homes are now rubble.

Continue marching, continue educating; build the hell out of the economic boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729). As schools open up this fall (though church halls are just as good a place), it’s an ideal time for speak-outs, forums, teach-ins as part of evangelizing for justice.

(Photo by Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

The future of a free Palestine

Palestinian children August 15 2014

Do you think a word of commentary is necessary–or is our elation for the surviving children of Gaza quite enough? Did we just go through hell over their fate only to see the little rascals playing games where they could break their necks?

These little ones are playing in the courtyard of a school the UN uses as a refugee center in Gaza City. They’ve been through hell & it’s only just begun but with the immense international solidarity movement now standing with them, they will grow to be the future of a free Palestine.

(Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)

The mass psychology of ethnic cleansing

Israeli psychosis August 15 2014

Evidence mounts of mass psychosis in Israel, which is the full flowering of Zionist supremacist & colonial ideology. Zionists used to boast they made the desert bloom in Palestine. But bloom with what? Racism & social hatred so profound the society is disintegrating & rotting from cultural dry rot?

This sicko was photographed in a Jerusalem pub Wednesday morning. It’s unconfirmed that he is an Israeli army reservist. Most US combat veterans come home with psychosis, addiction, & other mental health problems; thousands commit suicide over guilt & grief at what they saw & did. Juicing it up in the morning might mean this guy has a shred of humanity left but when you flaunt ethnic cleansing on your shirt & drown your sorrows in a pint while psycho politicians praise you for your crimes, chances are there isn’t much left–& what is left isn’t worth the bother.

Keep marching for Palestine & evangelize for the economic boycott of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729).

(Photo by AP)

Al fresco living in Gaza

Gaza; al fresco living August 13 2014

Gaza is forever in our hearts & minds as Palestinians come out from cover, still in shock & mourning, to assess the damage & figure out what to do next. There is trauma; there is resilience & there is the incredible human capacity to make the best of a bad situation.

These two young guys, one with an arm bandaged up to his armpit, are preparing for a stretch of al fresco living—-probably stunned they’re still alive. Israeli apologists for genocide in Gaza try to deflect attention from the number of small children killed by citing death demographics proving young men of this age–the ‘Hamas age’–were the greatest number killed, as if that makes genocide all okay.

We’re glad these young men survived & we don’t give a rat’s ass if they belong to Hamas or any other group. Our fullest solidarity with them. We love that in the midst of rubble, they continue to fly the Palestinian flag, a symbol of their resistance to apartheid & genocide & their commitment to a future Palestine.

Keep rallying to demand “Stop the slaughter in Gaza”, “End the blockade of Gaza” & keep evangelizing for the economic boycott of all Israeli goods (barcode beginning 729).

(Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)

 

Homeless in Gaza

Homeless in Gaza August 13 2014

Israel & the US have a public relations catastrophe on their hands after tweets went round the world exposing ethnic cleansing in Gaza. It was certain their think tanks would work overtime to counter the images of Palestinian children. Anyone who’s ever tangled with a Zionist knows they’re a broken record of whining that anti-Zionism is anti-Jewish. Guilt-baiting is their stock-in-trade & often quite effective even though they wear it to death.

The Palestinian solidarity movement has made itself entirely clear: there is no room in this movement for anti-Semitism or racism of any kind. The political group who don’t seem to get that are libertarians. There are fifty different varieties of libertarians but the ones we’re speaking of are those who think David Duke, the white supremacist, anti-Semite, & former grand poobah of the KKK, has a place in our movement. Or the ones who get into the conspiracy of illuminati, Free Masons, & Rothschild bankers & think David Ickey-poo sincerely supports Palestinians.

We want to build an international movement where men & women of every hue are comfortable. Does anyone seriously think civil rights activists would be comfortable speaking on the same platform as David Duke who considers them inferior beings? You can say “enough with the harping on this question” but looking at media coverage of the Palestinian solidarity movement shows you cannot harp on this enough.

According to a 2005 report by the US State Department, anti-Semitic incidents have increased significantly since 2000, including harassment & intimidation; vandalism (graffiti, fire bombings of Jewish schools, desecration of synagogues & cemeteries); physical assaults. They noted the increase particularly in France, Germany, the UK, Belgium, & The Netherlands & they blamed it on far-right groups as well as “disadvantaged & disaffected Muslim youth”. It isn’t the most reliable report in the world because it confounds Palestinian solidarity with anti-Semitism but an increase of such incidents are a matter of grave concern. They did not report a rise of anti-Semitic incidents in the US.

One wonders if they did a comparative analysis of the rampant Islamophobia, persecution of Roma, & victimization of immigrants that prevail as state policy in some of those same countries–in particular France, Greece, & The Netherlands. Is the increase in anti-Semitism part of the general trend of political polarization & the rise of extreme right-wing goon squads or is it sui generis for some unexplained reason?

What’s emerging now among politicians & media are alarmist reports about the rise of anti-Semitism which they blatantly & shamefully link to Palestinian solidarity. The UN’s Ban Ki-moon, who couldn’t bring himself to condemn Israeli ethnic cleansing, issued one of the first volleys in this insidious campaign deploring anti-Semitic attacks in Europe since the genocide in Gaza began. Several media sources followed suit, denouncing anti-Semitism among Palestinian supporters, which they claim is evident & rampant on social media.

French politicians who are forcibly deporting Roma & attempting to ban Palestinian solidarity protests are up in arms about vandalizing & looting of Jewish businesses, burning of cars in Jewish neighborhoods, & clashes between Palestinian supporters & Jewish residents. They claim Palestinian supporters entered Jewish neighborhoods on more than one occasion chanting “Gas the Jews” & “Kill the Jews”.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who has distinguished himself for xenophobia & forcible deportation of Roma says he was “profoundly shocked & revolted” by an incident in Paris which he claims turned violent when Palestinian supporters trapped Jews in a synagogue. One of those trapped later told Israeli TV that “the streets outside were “like an intifada”.”

Newsweek magazine, which has a history of inflammatory journalism, had an article titled ” “Exodus: Why Europe’s Jews Are Fleeing Once Again” about anti-Semitism in Europe & they described that incident at the Paris synagogue. The article began: “The mob howled for vengeance, the missiles raining down on the synagogue walls as the worshippers huddled inside.”–& went downhill from there. Even the French minister didn’t accuse Palestinian supporters of attacking the synagogue with missiles.

Newsweek drew on the most questionable sources for information about rising anti-Semitism: the Zionist Anti-Defamation League; Natan Sharansky, a Russian Zionist who administers settlers for Israel; & another schnook named Ben Cohen who says: “Saying that Jews are the only nation who don’t have the right to self-determination, smearing Israel as a modern incarnation of Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa, asserting that the ‘Israel Lobby’ manipulates American foreign policy from the shadows is unmistakably anti-Semitism.” Who’s smearing who here!?

If these anti-Semitic incidents are real, that’s alarming; if Palestinian supporters are involved, that’s worse than reprehensible. But frankly, that’s highly doubtful & every attempt to smear Palestinian solidarity with this crap is slander intended to discredit justice. If there were “Palestinian supporters” harassing synagogues, let two words suffice: agents provocateurs.

It’s very likely there’s an increase of anti-Semitism in Europe as part of the political polarization in response to neoliberal austerity programs & the rise of neo-Nazi groups like Golden Dawn in Greece. We only wish such alarmism & concern included Roma & immigrants in France & elsewhere, & Palestinians under siege in Gaza.

This man in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza sleeps al fresco outside his apartment which was bombed during a 72-hour ceasefire which Israel violated (Aug 11). Twitter this, Israel!

Respond to the slanders against Palestinians & the solidarity movement with larger rallies & evangelize for the economic boycott of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729).

(Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

Intifada lives amidst the rubble!

Palestinian flag in rubble August 13 2014

For the umpteenth time, media plays with truth in the caption to this photo of a bombed out home in Khan Younis, Gaza: “witnesses said was (it) destroyed in the Israeli offensive.” By hedging, Israel can make their “evil fairies from outer space did it” defense or claim it’s from a misfired Hamas rocket if it ever gets tried in an international tribunal for war crimes & crimes against humanity for Operation Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza.

The UN has started an investigation but it will certainly end as all the rest: letting Israel walk away scot-free from war crimes witnessed by the entire world. We can hold our own tribunals where evidence carries weight & hasbara is recognized as cartoon & called out for what it is: recycled 19th century racism & colonial hatred that views the colonized as sub-human.

Tons of cement have to be cleared with bulldozers & backhoes & it’s unlikely Israel, which controls & blockades Gaza, will allow delivery of that equipment by claiming Hamas will use it to build more tunnels. Meanwhile it’s extremely dangerous for people to be crawling around the shifting debris, but where else do thousands of homeless people go? UN refugee facilities were already inadquate when Israel bombed six of them. So people are now setting up camps & bedding in the midst of debris. You can see in the left background of this picture that someone has set up camp here. There’s no place to cook or bathe or even sit; no place for intimacy or privacy; for heaven’s sake, there’s no place to go the toilet. Prior to this onslaught the only local source of water (an aquifir) was 90% polluted. Gaza is barely habitable–which is exactly what Israel intended.

Still the most striking thing about this photo is the Palestinian flag in the midst of devastation. The Arabic word for “fortitude” must be “Palestinian” because intifada is not for the faint-hearted. Israel is still bombing in Gaza, having again broken it’s most recent ceasefire agreement. The sight of that flag symbolizing the spirit of resistance makes this man a target.

Apparently the original Hebrew name for Operation Protective Edge (the name Israel gave this phase of Operation Ethnic Cleansing) is “Tzuk Eitan” meaning “Mighty Cliff”. Isn’t that ironic because there is probably no more apt metaphor for the barbaric brinkmanship that has brought Israel to the edge of a mighty steep cliff–a cliff it is destined to go over.

Once again, Gaza looks like the apocalypse has been & gone. Support Palestinian justice & build the hell out of the economic boycott of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729). Keep marching.

(Photo by Ibraheem Aby Mustafa/Reuters)