Armed with semiautomatic weapons, soldiers invaded & conducted a violent house to house search ostensibly searching for weapons. They tore through homes upending & trashing furniture & belongings for several hours, & interrogating & photographing dozens of families. After about 24 hours in the camp they only turned up “two improvised handguns” & other unspecified “weapons & ammunition”—most likely a slingshot or two. By the time the rioting soldiers left, one teenage boy had been killed by a shot in the back with a live bullet & 40 were injured—at least ten with live ammo & 25 with rubber-coated steel bullets. Witnesses say soldiers tossed sound & gas grenades at school children throwing stones at them.

Al-Fawwar refugee camp is close to the city of Hebron. The number of residents is between 9,000 & 10,000 in an area less than one-square kilometer. It has inadequate sewage & sanitation facilities & one of the worst poverty levels among Palestinians.

Residents of Fawwar sustain continuing harassment by the Israeli army which has a base near the camp & by residents of a large Israeli settlement nearby. Last month, the camp was cordoned in for 26 days “after a gunman belonging to a Hamas terror cell” fired on a car of Israeli settlers, causing it to crash. What that incident had to do with residents at Fawwar is not explained. Nor do they elaborate how they know the gunman was a member of Hamas & not another deranged Israeli settler.

Violent home invasions are an instrument of occupation to terrorize & are as prevalent in the West Bank as they are in Kashmir where they are a major issue in this current siege.

The name of the 17-year-old killed was Mohammed abu Hashhash. May he RIP. To honor his life we should build the hell out of the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel (BDS). Buy nothing with a barcode beginning 729 & check everything you buy.

(Photo by Mussa Qawasma/Reuters)

This is the funeral of Irfan Ahmed, a young man who died from being hit in the chest by a tear gas canister on Sunday. He was part of the protests in Srinagar. Covering funerals in Kashmir is important because the deaths of young people are such a feature of the occupation. But this kind of coverage, which also typifies that of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, is intended to mask the massive character of opposition & make it appear a small number of miscreants & terrorists. One seldom, if ever, sees photos of large protests either in Palestine or Kashmir.

The Indian army is hindering delivery of essential supplies like milk & vegetables to Kashmir. Meanwhile, five milk truck drivers were attacked by soldiers as they carried milk from local producers to Srinagar & elsewhere in Kashmir. Soldiers dragged the drivers out of their trucks, hit them with batons & gun-butts & forced them to crawl on the road. Oil tank drivers have gone on indefinite strike because soldiers are also attacking them throughout the Valley.

May Irfan Ahmed RIP. He died resisting oppression. Our sincere condolences to his family & friends.

Long live Kashmiri Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

After the delegation returned from Syria, they appeared at a UN forum with the Syrian ambassador & apparently intend to go on speaking tours to promote their version of the war, especially to other US antiwar activists. Their version is that Syria is not a civil war; that Assad is a popular leader, not at war with his own people who are united with him in fighting “mercenaries & foreign terrorists.” They contend it is a US regime change war justified by demonizing Assad.

None of the delegates who spoke addressed whose warplanes are bombing Syria. They apparently didn’t want to know since they admitted they never even asked Assad about Syria & Russia’s alleged use of barrel bombs. They claimed the news is all US State Department & corporate media lies. Whereas they prefer to rely on the Putin & Assad governments for their information.

To show their independence as a delegation, they admitted Assad provided security & half the expense of their accommodations on the tour. They also reported that Vanessa Beeley & Eva Bartlett were associated with the delegation. Beeley & Bartlett are Assadist journalists whose reporting about Assad is more propaganda than journalism & sometimes rivals the hero worship of Stalin.

The US antiwar movement needs to overcome differences nationally (as it has locally in some places) to address the issue of Syria. It is coming under fire from Stalinists & libertarians for not supporting Assad & from conservative anti-Assadists for not demanding the US pull off a humanitarian intervention.

The US Peace Council delegation does not represent the US antiwar movement & cannot be used to impugn the antiwar movement which needs to be rebuilt, not slandered.