Our deepest sympathies to the families of victims & to those who survived this monstrous, cowardly attack. Our fullest political solidarity.

The man here is tending to a woman who was injured.

(Photo by Tumay Berkin/Reuters)

There is another reason also & that is to avoid demonizing all Israelis as monsters when this incident included only extremists. There have been protests in Israel opposing the rampage against Palestinians as they opposed Operation Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza in 2014. The purpose of solidarity with Palestinians is to strengthen their struggle against the Zionist state & in the long run win over Israeli citizens to dismantling Israel & establishing a democratic, secular state where Jews live with Palestinians as brothers & sisters. A daunting political task but one that cannot be accomplished by demonizing all Israelis at the outset.

The monstrous behavior of Israeli extremists & the Israeli military is not sui generis in the history of colonialism–not by a long shot. Africans, Maoris, Hawaiians, Indigenous peoples of Australia & the Americas, Rohingya in Myanmar, Dalits & other oppressed castes in India, Kashmiris under Indian occupation, Black Americans under Jim Crow, & the list of horrors goes on & on because that is the nature of racism & colonialism.

Israel is repeating that ignominious pattern because it is a colonial project which Zionism has been from the outset (in the 19th century) when it rejected the broader struggle against racism & colonialism & instead threw in its lot with them, hoping to derive benefits for Jews from colonialism at the expense of others.

Not demonizing an entire people does not mean not condemning in the strongest terms those engaged in such unspeakable crimes against Palestinians, young & old, & demanding the Israeli government stop its rampage against Palestinians & end the occupation.

Building BDS is the most effective way to put pressure on Israel & on its working people to break with Zionism & join the rest of the human race fighting to end racism & colonialism. That is of course a daunting historic mission but one which the future of humanity makes imperative.

This is one of the very few photos of the past few days in mainstream media. The captions of course always cover for a multitude of human rights crimes. This young man was injured yesterday at a military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus. The Associated Press caption read: “Tensions in the West Bank continued with near-daily violent demonstrations.” Foxy, eh? It’s the Palestinians who are violent. But then, in a blast of cognitive dissonance, the caption goes on to say “At least 45 Palestinians were wounded by live bullets in clashes between university students & Israeli forces.” Well now, anybody in their right mind should say outright that when Israeli soldiers are shooting live ammo at unarmed protesters, then the ‘near-daily violence’ is coming from Israeli soldiers, not the protesters.

Enough of this baloney! The truth will out through social media & independent journalism.

Build the boycott of Israel & hold emergency rallies demanding no aid of any kind to apartheid Israel. We are all Palestinians!

(Photo by Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP)

This photo shows the utterly gratuitous & aggressive character of the Israeli occupation which denies civil liberties to Palestinians. It’s a picture worth a thousand lies.

Build the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel & demand no aid of any kind to Israel.

(Photo by Majdi Mohammed/AP)

An estimated 850,000 Blacks showed up in Washington, & not just men, but women activists & teens responding to the violence against their communities around the US. Whatever the conservative intent of the organizers, it was a massive show of Black power.

Serendipitously, the O.J. Simpson verdict was rendered on October 3rd, 1995–an innocent verdict that stunned mostly white people across the US. His guilt or innocence is not important here. The verdict ignited a media onslaught against Blacks declaring the irreconcilable polarity of Blacks & whites in the US. Many whites, whose racism was previously chastened by the Civil Rights & Black Power Movements of the 1960s, began to speak openly of their hatred & distrust for Blacks. Since the US remains largely segregated, they were expressing profound ignorance & prejudice gleaned from TV, film, & other media representations.

And then, the Million Man March took place, just one week after the Simpson verdict. The cacophony of emboldened racism in media & among many whites stopped on a dime. Such is the daunting affect of Black power!

Photos of the 2015 march show young activists in Black Lives Matter (BLM) hoodies. A new generation of activists is emerging. While many parse the BLM movement looking for its political achilles heel, experienced activists know building a movement is a process of mistakes, fumbles, misdirections. What alone matters is organizing the commitment of the Black community to defend itself & its youth & to build the political structures of Black power.

A salute to Black political power!