Still no news from Ban Ki-moon about war crimes in Gaza

Gaza; Israeli bombing August 26 2014

These people in the street must have gotten their automatic telephone call from the Israeli military telling them to evacuate so Israel could blow up their houses. Actually what Israel is bombing here is the refugee camp in Rafah. Of course as we know from umpteen numbers of other photos, these people in the street are sitting ducks for those bombers. And still there isn’t a peep out of the UN & all those human rights NGOs about war crimes. Is it possible their silence is consent to genocide?

We wonder if the psychos in the hills of Sderot are still there cheering on ethnic cleansing since there aren’t any recent photos. Perhaps the hasbara factory finally smartened up & told them to scram since it doesn’t look good to claim you’re cowering from Hamas rockets if you’re sitting right in the line of fire & making an international spectacle of yourself–& a shameful one at that.

(Photo by Hatem Ali/AP)

August 26, 1970 and the birth of U.S. feminism

August 26 1970

The women’s movement of the 1970s has taken quite a beating by people who draw their history from media & others who want to vilify feminism. Feminism erupted in the late 1960s from every niche of society; women from the Civil Rights Movement, from religious groups, students, working women, Black & Latino women, lesbians. Betty Friedan is attributed with starting the movement with her book “The Feminine Mystique” but many activists had never read her boring book which dealt with white middle class, well-educated women. Feminism was a much broader & deeper social rebellion than her book envisioned.

The movement is misrepresented as white & middle-class, racist, lesbians & spinsters, blue-nosed. That’s not history; that’s how media always portrayed the movement to deter women from identifying with feminism–which is a volatile force for social transformation. Media depiction of feminism is a punk caricature & regrettably the slanders have not been sufficiently countered by feminists of that era.

Feminism & the Vietnam War were my first political awakenings & both began to matter to me when I was a novice in a convent in the early 1960s. My brother was a soldier in the war & I was not allowed to read about it. Here I was a student of history & not allowed to be part of my own times. What rankled me most was the unequal treatment of men & women in the Catholic Church. While we were kept encaged & infantalized, the priests were out gallivanting without the constant supervision we were subjected to. So I made my break & within a year was involved in the antiwar movement. There was no women’s movement yet so I read Catholic writers who identified with the new ideas of feminism; I’d actually never heard of Betty Friedan. When the women’s movement began to emerge, I headed for New York City to be part of it.

I arrived in time to build the first women’s liberation march of August 26, 1970. The demands of that march were: Equal pay; childcare; abortion rights & no forced sterilization. No forced sterilization was essential to distinguish feminism from the eugenics groups who wanted abortion rights for license to control the population of black & brown women. It was a major issue for Black, Latino, & Native American women who were routinely sterilized without their knowledge or consent. At the time, it was reported 30% of the women of Puerto Rico were force sterilized. It remains a problem in population control programs.

It was my personal & political history & I am writing a series of essays to correct the historical record about this magnificent movement which was only on the stage of history briefly before it was derailed into the Democratic Party.

I certainly wasn’t the star of the show but I played a small part by organizing the publicity for the march. One of our jobs was to go out every night with march posters & plastering brushes hidden in pizza boxes to wallpaper the city. We got hauled in by the cops a couple times; we got arrested postering the Playboy Club in Manhattan.

I accidentally came across this audio thingamajig on the internet of me giving a report on the plastering & answering an interviewer. You can see I was still fumbling my way through an understanding of women’s oppression. I’m not a boastful soul but am very proud of my participation in the women’s movement & met some wonderful women. I continued activism primarily around abortion rights on the campus of NYU where I worked as a secretary.

Photo is August 26 1970 Women’s March for Equality down Fifth Avenue in NYC on the 50th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in the US Bill of Rights which gave women the right to vote.

(Photo by John Olsen)

http://www.wnyc.org/story/87675-celebrating-international-womens-day-a-look-at-how-we-got-here/

 

Humans of Nairobi, Kenya

HONY August 26 2014

One of the loveliest things about the “Humans of New York” album is that it captures in a pithy way what it is about people that is so endearing. On days when “the world is too much with us”, it’s a good album to peruse to get your groove back on.

Many images, like this one, don’t appear to be actually taken in New York since the city slums aren’t shanties–so it’s not clear if this was taken in Nairobi, Kenya or if the kids are from there.

“When they don’t think I’m watching, they do the funniest things. They are always dancing together. I found them in the kitchen yesterday, pretending to cook.”

“What’s your greatest worry as a parent?”

“Their health. They’re always getting sick from the cold and the dust. Sometimes the dust gets so bad, they lose their voices.”

(Nairobi, Kenya)

“Oh rascal children of Gaza”

Oh rascal children of Gaza August 25 2014
“Oh rascal children of Gaza. You who constantly disturbed me with your screams under my window. You who filled every morning with rush and chaos. You who broke my vase and stole the lonely flower on my balcony. Come back, and scream as you want and break all the vases. Steal all the flowers. Come back..Just come back..”

Khaled Juma, a Palestinian poet from Rafah, Gaza wrote this poignant tribute to the now over 500 children of Gaza killed by Israeli bombing; Sixteen Minutes to Gaza illustrated his poem with photos: http://smpalestine.com/2014/08/24/illustrated-poetry-oh-rascal-children-of-gaza/

RIP Michael Brown

Michael Brown August 25 2014

Michael Brown, the 18-year-old murdered by a cop on August 9th, is being laid to rest today. Our deepest sympathies to his family. May he RIP.

Justice however isn’t even close to being addressed & won’t be unless massive political pressure continues to support the Black community in Ferguson. The Missouri National Guard was withdrawn after the governor claimed the situation was “greatly improved with fewer incidents of outside agitators interfering with peaceful protesters & fewer acts of violence.” The governor claims the National Guard restored order but didn’t admit the unrest was set off by the murder of an unarmed young man & police assaults on the Bill of Rights.

US Attorney General Eric “Hapless” Holder has ordered a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting & a grand jury is hearing the case against the killer cop. Since Holder is still investigating the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, no one should hold out much hope for justice from those quarters. Holder said, “It’s going to take time for us to develop all the facts, develop all the evidence & see where the case will ultimately go.” Quite a contrast to how expeditious they can be when they’re going after alleged terrorists. They had 9/11 all wrapped up in a week.

As for those “outside agitators”, we have every right under the Bill of Rights to travel to Ferguson, Missouri to express our solidarity with the Black community. And we sincerely hope (Reverend, my ass!) Al Sharpton does not derail this important civil rights & Black power struggle into prayer meetings & the next election for a “lesser evil”. There’s no objection to praying except when it’s used to replace justice.

(Photo is Michael Brown)

Media lies & the child death toll from Operation Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza

Gaza Al-Zafer bombing August 25 2014

After a while trying to suss out facts from media reports, you catch on that most news is canned & there is little on-the-spot investigation & you only wish that could explain the idiocies of reporting from Gaza. At what point will media around the world admit that news coverage coming out of Gaza about Israeli genocide is simply nuts & that the go-to source for information is the Israeli military?

This weekend Israeli bombers went on a rampage in Gaza City & Rafah. They took out a two-story shopping mall & a seven-story office building in Rafah & a twelve-story apartment complex in Gaza City. The military claims they warned apartment residents by automated phone calls that it was targeting buildings “harboring terrorist infrastructure”–so if you live in Gaza you better make damn sure you don’t go to the toilet & leave your phone in the kitchen.

Media claims targeting tall buildings signals a new escalation in the seven weeks of Operation Ethnic Cleansing & a new military tactic by Israel. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry at such a statement. For seven weeks we have seen one photo after another of several-story apartment buildings & other facilities taken out by Israeli bombs–hundreds of photos & dozens of news accounts reporting that Israeli bombers repeatedly strike apartment complexes to make sure there isn’t a soul left standing. This is not a new military tactic but the continued policy of ethnic cleansing.

The Israeli military justified the bombing of apartment complexes by claiming they housed “Hamas operational centers” or that Hamas held meetings in them or that military activities were launched out of them because it’s just too stupid to claim they’re going after tunnels in a twelve-story building. But quite frankly Israel can claim any baloney it likes because media will echo it even when it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.

Last Friday, a 4-year-old Israeli boy named Daniel Tregerman was killed, allegedly by Hamas fire. May the little guy RIP since he has no responsibility whatsoever for the crimes of Israel. He lived on a kibbutz right on the Gaza border near the infamous town of Sderot, where residents perched for weeks cheering on ethnic cleansing in Gaza. We say allegedly by Hamas fire since proximity to massive Israeli bombing in Gaza means it could be a misfired Israeli missile. We need to see some evidence.

There are hundreds of media stories about little Daniel; Zionists around the world are inflamed with outrage. Yet when over 469 children & infants in Gaza were bombed to death (& the death toll continues to climb), Zionists not only claimed in the most shameful & racist way that Palestinians use their children for human shields but they sat in lawn chairs & cheered it on. A few weeks ago Lionel Messi, an Argentine soccer star, posted a photo of an injured Palestinian child on his FB page, expressing his anger at the deaths of children & now Zionists are barraging him with demands to acknowledge the death of Daniel. They don’t give a rat’s ass about Daniel; they’re using his death to justify ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

We express our condolences to the family of Daniel Tregerman. On Sunday, 18-month-old Zainah Abu Taqiya was killed in one of those apartment buildings in Gaza. We express our condolences to her family also & recognize the deaths of both children & all the other Palestinian children & adults are war crimes that Israel should be indicted for in an international tribunal.

Pay tribute to all those killed in Operation Ethnic Cleansing by continuing to rally, educate, & evangelize for the boycott of all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729). Demand that Israel stop the massacre & end the blockade in Gaza.

This photo is the rubble of the 12-story Al-Zafer apartment complex in Gaza City bombed on Saturday. Media repeats Israeli military claims that it was a Hamas command center.

(Photo by Khalil Hamra/AP)

Hollywood has-beens endorse ethnic cleansing in Gaza

Gaza City bombing August 24 2014

Big news today from the conservative Jerusalem Post is that “hundreds” of Hollywood “A-listers” signed a statement written & published for trade journals by Creative Community For Peace (CCFP), “an organization of prominent entertainment industry executives devoted to using art & music to build bridges for peace.” Turns out the “hundreds” are only 193 people, maybe prominent agents & producers in the industry but hardly A-listers except for Seth Rogen, Schwarzenegger, Roseanne Barr, Kelsey Grammer, Tom Arnold, Sarah Silverman, Ivan Reitman, Bill Maher, Sylvester Stallone, Minnie Driver, Kathy Ireland, Mayim Bialik, & Ziggy Marley. These are hardly the people one turns to for political counsel unless you also consider Jon Voight a political guru & look to candy manufacturers for nutritional advice.

Creative Community for Peace was founded in 2011 as a pro-Israel, anti-BDS group of music executives & agents to counter the growing influence of Palestinian solidarity & the refusal of prominent entertainers to perform in Israel. The executives who run CCFP orchestrate the careers of people like Aerosmith, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber. When media announced the formation of CCFP, the headline read, “Music moguls to artists: Don’t boycott Israel” which could be taken as a threat.

Though the website has a flashy video announcing “Music speaks its mind & knows no borders” & has a petition titled “Don’t Let Israel’s Detractors Politicize Art”, the group was formed to support Israel, defame Palestinians, & counter the influence of BDS among performers. It’s not about bringing people together with music but an attempt to hijack pop culture in the service of Israeli apartheid. As one of the organizers said at the founding meeting, “It’s all a question of image. For many in the younger generation, being associated with the anti-Israel cause can be way more cool.” The cultural attache for the Israel Consulate who was also at the founding meeting said, “We need to make Israel cool.”

CCFP spokespersons claim BDS is about ‘undermining Israel’s right to be a state for Jews’. In fact, the BDS campaign organizers accept the 1967 borders & a two-state solution. Many BDS activists do not accept those borders, think the very concept is a dried up old prune, & believe Palestinian justice demands a democratic secular state where Jews & Palestinians live as brothers & sisters.

No one challenges the right of Hollywood performers & agents to be politically reactionary; this is still a free country, as they say, so you can be as stupid as you like. But you’d have to be naive not to recognize there is coercion involved–the kind of coercion that forced Penelope Cruz & Javier Bardem to back down on their outspoken support for Gaza, the kind of coercion that says (sub rosa, of course) “support Israel or you’ll never work in this town again.”

What is most despicable about this public statement from CCFP is the claim “Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.” Eely-Oily Weasel writ large!

CCFP says they’re heartened at the enormous response in the industry to their arm-twisting & expect the list of signatories to grow beyond the little group of right-wing flunkies whose flagging careers are all washed up. That only means they’ve got some real muscle planned. So while they support Israeli apartheid with bully-boy tactics, let us continue to reach out to the highest aspirations of human beings for peace & justice. We don’t hold the young in such contempt & don’t think it’s about making BDS cool but about making apartheid decidedly uncool & making justice prominent in the hearts & minds of young & old.

This is a photo of Gaza City yesterday where Israel continues it’s bombing rampage. CCFP wants musicians to provide the music score to this carnage.

(Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP)

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)