“Eight-year-old Sufian Abu Hitah disobeyed his mother to sneak out from his grandparents’ house to look for a missing toy when he was seized by a group of around 15 soldiers.
The UK’s Independent calls the video “shocking.” I call it just one more everyday abuse of Palestinian children by the Israeli State, this time captured on video.” –Carol Sughrue
If Putin isn’t squeamish about carpet bombing unarmed civilians in Syria with cluster & thermobaric bombs, then his riot police think it’s small potatoes to manhandle one peaceful woman protester because Putin didn’t sanction the protest against him.
TASS, Russian-state media reports 500 protesters have been arrested so far today just at the Moscow rally.
(Photo Twitter from Julian Ropcke)
Protests are going on today in several cities across Russia to protest corruption & demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny called the protests over allegations that Medvedev had amassed an immense fortune that outstripped his official salary.
Dozens are being arrested because the Putin regime calls the protests “unsanctioned.” In 2014, Putin signed a law criminalizing repeated protests. Those found guilty of ““holding meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches & pickets” multiple times during a 6-month period are eligible for penalties up to 1 million rubles (($28,540) or two years of salary & up to five years of forced labor or prison.
In 2016, Putin formed a National Guard with the right to fire into crowds with live ammunition. This would suggest Putin & his Kremlin cabal expect dissidence & intend to repress it.
Already today dozens of protesters have been arrested In Vladivostok, Moscow, & elsewhere, but reports are incomplete. The Moscow rally is surrounded by thousands of riot police, paddy wagons are in the wings, & surveillance helicopters are circling overhead.
Our fullest solidarity with the protesters. We hope some of them will raise banners demanding the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops & bombers from Syria.
(Photo of anti-corruption protest in Vladivostok, March 26, 2017 by Yuri Maltsev)
Mary Scully speaking at rally on solidarity.
Got called the “infamous Braindead Mary, terrorist supporter extraordinaire.” Isn’t that adorable? Better than the guy who wanted me “partitioned” or the one who called me a “c–t.” Welcome to the world of the Hands Off Syria Coalition where hating on Muslims, women, & Jews is a free-for-all exposing the character of their support for Assad’s dictatorship.
Proud to stand with so many others for the Syrian revolutionists who have paid a monumental price fighting against all odds for freedom & democracy.
CBS news had a report about all the fake profiles on Facebook called bots. It was to explain how so many crazy-pants news stories go viral & get shared thousands of times. Thousands of those bots originate from sites in Russian propaganda offices.
Now doesn’t it make sense that pro-Assad & Putin posts gets hundreds of positive responses on FB but can’t gather a crowd of over a handful? Most people have higher aspirations in life than defending dictatorship.
This is a scene from Syria today as a result of Syrian, Russian, & US bombing. Assad supporters are silent on this because they’re so obsessed with vilifying the White Helmet rescue workers. They turn their backs on this carnage to campaign with feigned horror at the imaginary rising tide of Russophobia against children of Russian descent in US public schools.
The evidence provided for this foolishness is the petulant claim of an unknown woman on FB whose child attends a private school in rural Pennsylvania & says he was called a name. What name was he called? Buttinsky? And he mistook that for a Russophobic slur? The school authorities dismissed her nonsense & so would anyone with half a brain. But not if you’re an Assadist who wants to deny that thousands of Syrian children have died by the violence of Syrian, Russian, & US bombs.
End the bombing of civilians in Syria, No foreign intervention. Russia, US, Iran, et al, out now!
(Photo from Twitter wall of Julian Ropcke)
“I’m sad to hear that without the EU, Europe would descend into war. Do we know what is it about their culture that makes them so violent?
(Retweeted Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks via Usman A Khan Tahir)
Admiration for the toughness & intransigence of Kashmiri & Palestinian Intifada is not the same as solidarity. Solidarity, if it is to be effective in supporting their struggles, means educating others about what those struggles are about, holding forums & teach-ins, rallies of protest, the whole schtick of standing with justice.
It isn’t just their struggle. If they win, they change the international dynamic in favor of the oppressed everywhere. They will be forging a new future for humanity. To say it clearly, their struggle is our struggle, if we have any smarts about it.
Using social media to educate is how Kashmiris overcame the news blackout that prevailed for decades. We need to follow their lead.
Kashmiri or Palestinian girl? A victim of pellet munitions or bombing shrapnel?
In fact, this is 17-year-old Rawya abu Jom’a at a hospital in Gaza City during Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing in summer 2014. She suffered severe shrapnel injury & disfigurement & emotional devastation when her family apartment was bombed, killing three of her cousins & her sister.
Israel was accused in that 7-week carpet bombing offensive of targeting children. Precisely what India does to children & youth in Kashmir. The numbers of those disabled by the occupation are in the thousands in both countries.
Long live Palestinian & Kashmiri Intifada. End the occupations. Self-determination for Palestine & Kashmir.
(Photo by Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex)