Was directed to my Other mail file by someone sending a long defense of the Indian occupation. Long or short, they’re all an ordeal to read. Found some hate mail from Zionists calling me an ugly pig & Nazi; a modeling offer to seniors for “a chance to showcase my beauty & sexy body curves” (they have no idea what interesting body curves ones gets over 70), & many lovely encouraging messages from Kashmiris.

Several years ago, I audited a class on the history of feminism at Wellesley College (Clinton & Albright’s alma mater) describing the period of feminist history I was part of, events I was present at. Wellesley admissions had just told me bluntly I wasn’t intellectually capable of attending there. Of course what they meant was that I wasn’t the right class but I was struck that I was judged not intelligent enough to study the history I was part of making.

I’m only reporting the history Kashmiris are making. They’re are the ones under siege. They have no need to thank me but we have every reason to honor them.

The photo on left is Kashmiri children & their father being harassed by Indian soldiers & on right is Israeli soldiers manhandling a small Palestinian boy. These images are ubiquitous in both military occupations.

We know from Palestinian & human rights testimony that it isn’t just the traumatic matter of harassing & manhandling little kids. Palestinian kids are targeted for violence including beating, kidnapping, torture, & incarceration in violation of countless international laws & by every standard of human decency. Human rights agencies testified that Israeli bombers hunted down children in the 2014 carpet bombing siege of Gaza. The images of small children covered in shrapnel injuries are an icon of that siege & documentation of human rights crimes. Just as iconic as dozens of horrific images from Kashmir of children & teens covered in permanently disabling pellet gun injuries.

It’s not uncommon for someone half-baked to reality to tsk-tsk the parents of Palestine & Kashmir for neglecting their kids & letting them get caught in crossfire. That’s the monstrous character of occupation: the entire people are commandeered into action from early childhood to old age. Lives are stolen in more ways than one. But children are not being recklessly placed in danger; they are being targeted. Israel explains the child fatalities by claiming Palestinians use their kids as human shields. India may soon spout that horse manure too.

Israel & India may be taking the barbarisms of targeting children to whole new levels of savagery but it is by no means original to either. Children by their nature speak to the free spirit in humankind. They bristle, rebel & react passionately against oppression & are the groundswell of revolution against it. Every new generation must be inculcated with inferiority, chastened, bullied, tormented into submission, because the oppressor is terrified of the young who give birth to rebellion & revolution.

In the archives of US apartheid known as Jim Crow there is a caricature tradition called “pickaninny art” which prevailed in popular culture until the civil rights movement of the 1960s upended Jim Crow & some of the cultural rubbish with it. Pickaninny art was a detestable presentation of tiny Black children, infants really, usually portrayed holding on to a twig suspended over a swamp of menacing alligators.

When you view image after image of this crap you question the deranged psychology behind cultural pleasure in seeing wee children threatened in such a monstrous way. You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud to see the cultural anxiety of the oppressor written all over that crap. It’s the violent imagination of how oppression will be managed & enforced by nipping it in the bud of youth–& is reflected in the war on Black youth.

Youth are the hope of revolution against oppression & standing with them is not an option–no equivocations, no buts or maybes.

Long live Kashmiri & Palestinian Intifada, the resistance of youth to oppression.

Activists may be harassed on FB but they continue to take full advantage of Twitter:

“Silence of freedom voices through killing is India’s old tactics. But this time whole ‪#‎Kashmir‬ is cheering freedom.”

(From Kashmir Freedom)

Not sure why the censorship petition is moving as slow as molasses. When we’ve done this previously for Palestinians booted from FB we garnered thousands of signatures in a matter of days. Does it reflect the weakness in Kashmiri solidarity? Are people reluctant to sign because of possible (non-existent) repercussions? Do I have to personally denounce each non-signer & call for public shaming?

It’s not certain why it’s moving so slow & if any of you have insights I’d be glad to hear them. Or if you can think of a better way to protest censoring, let us know.

FB censorship of posts about Kashmir is getting widespread coverage in international media now & that is a direct result of objections activists are making all over social media, including our petition. Those involved in the petition & protests are being interviewed by all sorts of media, including Huffington Post, Guardian-UK, & The Washington Post. Indian & Pakistani media have covered it from the start.

Here are some recent articles:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/facebook-is-censoring-pos…/

http://www.valuewalk.com/…/07/facebook-kashmir-delete-posts/

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/…/burhan-wani-ka…/1/729302.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/…/abandoning-nuance-facebook-…/

In silencing the voices of Kashmiris & their supporters, FB has exposed its increasing censorship of posts particularly about Palestine & Kashmir. Not a good image or business model for FB to operate as the secret police for brutal military occupations. This will not improve now that Israel is suing FB to crack down on BDS & Palestinian activism.

Our response is to keep up the heat so please sign this petition which is an appeal to FB to honor the US Bill of Rights from which it is not exempt no matter how many squadrons of lawyers say so. It is a direct appeal necessary if a class action suit becomes necessary. You may be tired of being asked to sign it but not more than we are of asking you to do so.

Get with the program & sign the damn thing.

https://www.change.org/p/facebook-stop-censoring-kashmiri-activists-on-facebook-reinstate-accounts-of-those-locked-out?

Just a reminder: no insults of any kind to Indians. The occupation is the responsibility of the Indian government & military. Many who support the occupation & oppose Kashmiri self-determination are boneheaded rightwing nationalists as despicable as they are everywhere–Drumpf & Modi writ large in the body politic.

But heaping opprobrium on all Indians overlooks the remarkable activists who stand with Kashmir, with Palestine, Dalit & Adivasi activists organizing against caste oppression, the environmental activists, labor activists, & so many others. Many of them were booted by FB for speaking out for Kashmir.

The overwhelming majority need to be won away from government propaganda to standing against the occupation. Frustration with the lack of a massive popular anti-occupation movement is entirely understandable–especially if you are Kashmiri. But as one who lives in the US & has been part of organizing against endless US wars for 50 years, I know that developing such a movement is a sustained, arduous campaign that cannot allow misanthropy as a political guide.

If you believe any part of the human race–outside of the Drumpfs & Modis–are a hopeless cause, there is no possibility for social change, you will become politically inert, & the descent into utter barbarism will be a walk in the park for neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism.

Honestly, with all the curfews & barbaric excesses of the Indian army, one would think Kashmiris would be hunkered & bunkered in their homes waiting out the siege. But that isn’t how they roll because that isn’t how they expect to end the violent occupation & achieve self-determination fighting without weapons but only with conviction.

These are photos of protests in South Kashmir today. The very hope, not just for Kashmiri independence but for the human race creating a humane society, depends on just such tenacity & determination.

We salute them & stand with them.

(Photos from Kashmir Dispatch)

Came across this photo on Twitter. It had no identification of when it was taken or who took it. It may well have been the protests in Kashmir held in solidarity with Palestinians when Israel was carpet bombing Gaza at this time in 2014.

There is everything to love about this photo of young scruffy rebels standing defiant, armed only with rocks against a brutal military occupation–& at the same time standing with their Palestinian brothers & sisters under siege thousands of miles away. This is the very heart & soul of solidarity.

Long live Kashmiri Intifada. Long live Palestinian Intifada. Self-determination is their right which we are duty-bound to support in every way possible. Especially now when Kashmiris are under siege.

Still another contingent of Kashmiri freedom fighters taking to the streets unarmed: doctors, on the front lines to treat the dying & injured, are protesting the use of pellet munitions.

Deepest respect for their toughness & fullest solidarity with their struggle against barbarism.

(Photo from Kashmir Dispatch)

Muhammad Suhail Dar, who dubbed Amnesty India as “cattle class amnesty India” for this ignominious post on Twitter, said: “Cow dung in India is known as GOBAR…..Government of India led by Modi is leaving no stone unturned to rename itself as ‪#‎GOBAR‬-MENT OF INDIA.”

It’s an indignity Americans long have lived with, given the nature of our own gobarment.

We call it like we see it & sometimes sarcasm is what saves us from insanity.