It’s worth highlighting this comment by Anne Silver about why Palestinians object to Israeli surveillance cameras within the Al Aqsa compound. Israel has removed the metal detectors but not the cameras. The Jordanian role she refers to is that the Noble Sanctuary is administered by the Jordanian Waqf trust.:
“These cameras will be able to detect faces and identities. This means that Israel is imposing complete control over the al-Haram al-Sharif area. The Jordanian role is being sidelined and the presence of Palestinian guards becomes null, because the real players are going to be those behind the screens watching the cameras,” Khalil Shaheen, a Ramallah-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
“There are large numbers of Palestinians who refuse to pay Israeli taxes in Jerusalem, and many from the West Bank who enter Jerusalem on Fridays without permits [illegal under Israeli law], as well as activists and others. For Israel to know who these people are is very dangerous and could harm these Palestinians,” he added. “This is a new form of surveillance and control … Palestinians must reject such measures, because these cameras are more dangerous than the metal detectors.”
Vignette from the life of a Rohingya refugee in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh:
An elderly Rohingya man, formally registered as a refugee with the UNHCR, has been suffering from liver cancer for about two years. His acute pain causes him to scream, making his suffering unbearable for his family to witness. He is not being hospitalized or provided suitable home care treatment because the UNHCR claims there is a budget crisis & providing treatment to an elderly person likely to die soon is not possible.
Stand in solidarity with the Rohingya struggle for human, democratic, citizenship, refugee rights.
For Senator McCain to drag his bony ass out of a death bed to deprive millions of working people of shoddy healthcare plans makes him not just a putz but an utterly contemptible one. Him, with the best healthcare plan in the world at taxpayer’s expense.
We don’t lower ourselves to his level to wish evil on him. At least not in this world. But when he croaks, let him rot in hell for all eternity. Amen.
A fascinating video about parkour in Kashmir & its relationship to resistance against occupation. It features Zahid Shah, the founder of parkour in Kashmir, & someone I consider a friend.
Came across this Kashmiri tribute to the role of Rollie Mukherjee’s art in building solidarity & educating about the occupation. How the hell I got honorable mention in the article beats me but I am more than honored. Reposting it out of my immense respect for Rollie’s artistic & political work which she combines with a powerful humanity.
Srinagar: imagine coming of age under occupation with this measure of conflict & tension, with soldiers–one to every seven Kashmiris–prowling the streets. All they have to do to end it is submit to colonialism, give up all claims to living as a free people, agree to live like whipped puppies under Modi-think & Hindutva nationalism. That’s why the Kashmiri struggle is so important: because they won’t.
The Kashmiri struggle may & certainly a Kashmiri victory would contribute monumentally to the titanic struggles in India against caste oppression, religious persecution & intolerance, the struggle against scorched earth neoliberal economics. That’s why so many of the most powerful voices of solidarity with Kashmiri self-determination are Indians. They understand the dialectical unity between freedom for Kashmir & the struggle against oppression in India.
Long live Kashmiri Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.
