This is the not the wall for praising Assad & vilifying Syrians as “jihadists.” If that’s your schtick, find the Facebook or Twitter wall of Syrian Girl.
Daily Archives: December 14, 2016
Why do so many who claim Syria too complicated to understand go all hog-wild liking pro-Assad posts? Why do they get so barbed with those who oppose Assad & claim we think in black & white when we talk about popular resistance to Assad’s dictatorship? Why do they think politics in Syria is Assad versus US-backed terrorists & ignore Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians? Why do they think the US is only arming “head-chopping jihadists” in Syria & isn’t engaged in other things?
Most of all, why the hell do they come to my wall to work out their confusions? Dealing with equivocators & the irresolute has never showcased my best qualities in politics. If you don’t understand something don’t come harass me. Google & learn to use the library.
Invidious parallels between Zionist & Assadist propaganda
The invidious parallels between Zionist propaganda against Palestinians & Assadist propaganda against Syrians is all there:
–children used as human shields in Gaza & in east Aleppo;
–depictions of Palestinians as Hamas & Syrians as Al-Nusra terrorists;
–fake photos & videos of Syrian atrocities & war crimes (like “the Omran hoax” & White Helmet rescues & now just pouring out of east Aleppo) according to Assadists & fake photos & videos of Israeli atrocities produced by what Zionists call “Pallywood.”
What’s deplorable is that many Palestinian supporters repeat about Syrians what they excoriated about Palestinians. The reasons are likely partly political, partly personal (too intellectually lazy to investigate). It would not be maligning truth to say it is based on a profound Islamophobia that adopts US Pentagon war-mongering to justify betraying the Syrian movement for democracy against Assad’s dictatorship.
Or is it only that Bashar Assad is just too stylish & western to be a monstrous dictator?
Struggle against dictatorship in Syria yoked to struggle of Palestinians against colonialism
The struggle for democracy in Syria against the Assad dictatorship is yoked inextricably to the struggle of Palestinians against Israeli colonialism & ethnic cleansing. Most Palestinians understand that well & many have spoken out against vilifying Syrian revolutionists as “jihadist terrorists” because that is exactly how they are portrayed to discredit their struggle against occupation.
They also recognize the parallels between what Assad forces are doing in east Aleppo & what they did in the Yarmouk & Khan Eshieh Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. They know that nearly 450 Palestinians have been murdered in Assad’s gulag & that 1,100 remain jailed, not for criminal misconduct but as political prisoners.
It’s a rare Palestinian or Kashmiri (who are also vilified as terrorists) who doesn’t grasp the character of Assadist propaganda about terrorists. And now alleged “jihadist” connections with ISIS & al-Qaeda are being used by the military junta in Myanmar to justify genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
It has been unseemly to watch Palestinian supporters like Max Blumenthal & Rania Khalek crash & burn by becoming glib apologists for the Assad regime & spouting rubbish about “jihadists” in east Aleppo. Much more distressing is seeing a number of Palestinian solidarity supporters who have sided wholeheartedly with Assadists, who don’t appear to have investigated the actual role of Israel in supporting Assad, & whose comments about the issue are indistinguishable in many ways from David Duke, the KKK supporter of Assad.
It is not politically apparent why this fault line in emerging in the antiwar, Palestinian solidarity, & socialist movements but it has been developing for a while. This is not the first time in history that such dramatic ruptures have divided movements.
What is required in response is not rancor & vituperations that go nowhere. The struggles in Syria, Palestine, Kashmir don’t have time to wait a few decades until progressive forces work out their differences. That won’t be until hell freezes over. What is required is that committed activists try to understand what is happening to the movements, why it is happening, what are the politics of these degenerations. We work with others where we can & go our separate ways when we can’t.
The most important thing is to keep our political bearings by focusing on how to best unify with others & build international solidarity movements. Of course, there can be no rapprochement in action between antiwar activists demanding all foreign military forces immediately, unconditionally withdraw from Syria & those with placards supporting Syrian bombing of civilians & Russian or US intervention.
Like the ancient symbol of the Phoenix, out of the ashes of the old a new movement will be regenerated that will broker no discounts on justice for the oppressed, that will not accept hateful propaganda against Arabs & Muslims as truth, that will stand four-square & not be moved–just as Kashmiris, Palestinians, & the popular resistance in Syria.
We stand with the people of east Aleppo & all of Syria as we stand with Palestinians & Kashmiris.
These are activists in Srinagar, Kashmir expressing on their placard the iron law of solidarity which the oppressed understand so well. Hopefully others will learn from their struggle how to stand as steadfast.
(Photo is from Twitter wall of Occupied Kashmir posted to Instagram by muzamil_mattoo on January 29, 2016)
Twitter is where sophisticated political writers go to make their egos the center of world politics. Historic struggles in Palestine & Syria are as naught compared to who wins the pissing contests. Watching them in action is a nice deterrent to hero worship.
Palestinian Mohammed Matter on apocalypse in Aleppo
Protests at Russian embassies around world in solidarity with Aleppo
Istanbul, Turkey, December 13 2016: march in solidarity with east Aleppo. Hundreds also rallied today in London.
There will be rallies in Stockholm & Gothenburg, Sweden; Gaziantep, Turkey; Amman, Jordan; Liverpool & Bradford, UK; Sydney & Melbourne, Australia; Karachi & Lahore, Pakistan; Denmark; Paris; Sarajevo; Gaza; Luxembourg; Ireland; Washington DC; Hamburg & Aarhus , Germany; Boston, McAllen, TX, Washington DC & NYC, US; Kuwait; Scotland; different parts of Syria; Amsterdam.
Does anyone know of other events around the world? If not, consider calling one.
(Photo from FB wall of Amr Moaz Alsarraj)
Some advise me to keep Assad supporters as Facebook friends in hopes they might be persuaded. That could work if you think of war as a talking point in world politics & Syrians as an abstraction. But that kind of detachment is too antisocial.
Evangelism among supporters of dictatorship & carpet bombing is better left to mental health professionals with the stomach & who get paid enough to cope with irrationality, conspiracy theories, & sucking up to power.
Dragging confused people around hoping to undo their attraction to barbarism is not the best use of time & psychic energy when there are so many men & women of good will who want to understand Syria.
Teacher’s testimony from east Aleppo under siege by the Syrian Army
Misanthropy & cynicism are worst possible response to apocalypse in east Aleppo
So many people are responding to the apocalypse in east Aleppo by saying the world stood by in silence, humanity has failed. Misanthropy & cynicism are the worst possible response to this horror.
The overwhelming majority of people in the world are confused about Syria because the regimes involved have deliberately lied & obfuscated. Media reporting hasn’t just been dissemblance but half-assed because it’s not certain reporters & editors understand what’s going on either.
Assad propagandists, including Russian-owned media & libertarian bloggers, have played the ignorant, those secretly disposed to Muslim-hating, & political forces in advanced decay like a fiddle so some of them now sincerely believe bombing civilians is a freedom struggle. You can’t argue with that kind of cognition disorder.
As witnesses to the killing fields in east Aleppo, we must use our anger & sorrow to educate those who don’t have time to plow through mountains of information to find the truth. We have to look for ways to rebuild antiwar opposition to all foreign intervention in Syria.
Misanthropy & cynicism are cop-outs that lead to the worthless conclusion that humanity is dead, fascism has triumphed, justice isn’t worth fighting for because human beings are crap anyway.
The international antiwar movement has to be rebuilt. It isn’t all over in Syria. That’s the most important conclusion to be drawn from east Aleppo