Because they’re such a rebuke to Islamophobic rubbish about saving Muslim women from their men & religion, the images of Palestinian & Kashmiri women stone pelters are always worth posting. But this was no ordinary stone pelting incident. These Kashmiri women were pelting at CRPF (counter-insurgency) troops to protest the killing of 19-year-old Kashmiri Zahid Rasool Bhat on October 9th, 2015. When I investigated the incident of his murder, this photo took on more gravity; the story requires serious attention.

Zahid Rasool Bhat was a trucker traveling back to the valley from New Delhi, India. A Hindutva nationalist goon squad who suspected him of transporting beef in his truck stopped the vehicle on the highway. Beef is eaten by Muslims but considered sacred by Hindus & more sacred than human life by Hindutva nationalists. The goon squad assaulted him & then set him on fire with petrol bombs in the cab of his truck. At that time, it was the third instance when a Muslim man had been murdered over beef. Not that it mitigates anything, but according to a credible report, Bhat was carrying coal in his truck, not beef.

The then Chief Minister of the state condemned the killing & offered the Bhat family compensation of about $7,700 & a government job. There’s something so venal about such an offer for the loss of a beloved son. Five nationalist thugs were arrested for murder, rioting, conspiracy, & explosive charges but there is no report on the legal actions against them. The incident was caught on security cameras so the murderers didn’t have a leg to stand on for defense. There was media blithering at the time about “communal passions” aroused between Hindus & Muslims over beef but that’s nothing but an alibi for the intolerance & hatred of nationalism whipped up by the Modi government against Muslims in India & Kashmir.

Our belated but sincere sympathy to the friends & family of Zahid Rasool Bhat. Today is the anniversary of his funeral attended by thousands of Kashmiris in his native town of Batengoo. May he Rest in Peace.

(Photo by Mir Wasim/GK)

Good thing the Las Vegas shooter had no religious affiliations & was “just a guy” who “freaked”. We wouldn’t want all of world Christianity falling all over themselves apologizing for a crime they had nothing to do with.

Parveena Ahangar (holding up photo) with other family members of those forcibly disappeared at monthly sit-in at park in Srinagar last Tuesday. The sit-in isn’t just a ritual but a protest demanding to know the fate of those disappeared during custody by Indian army.

Stand with Kashmiris. Demand an end to forcible disappearance.
End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Habib Naqash/GK)

An article in the NY Times titled, Rohingya Recount Atrocities: ‘They Threw My Baby Into a Fire’:

Given who the NY Times represents politically & the billions of dollars in US investments in Burma, it’s unlikely such an honest report on genocide against the Rohingya would appear were it not for the role of Rohingya activists & their supporters on social media who have made this genocide a central issue in world politics. There would be reports, of course, but they would focus primarily on ARSA–portraying them as terrorists–& minimize the atrocities committed by the Burmese military & paramilitary death squads.

This article resonates with those in the NY Times last year on India’s use of pellet munitions in Kashmir–an issue they would probably have let pass or skewed in India’s favor were it not for Kashmiri social media activism that made pellet guns an international human rights issue.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/world/asia/rohingya-myanmar-atrocities.html?smid=pl-share

(Photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times)

A young woman named Lauren Sivan is telling the story of how Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her ten years ago just 1 & 1/2 hours after he met her at a dinner party. She froze, not knowing how to handle the situation. There isn’t a woman alive who hasn’t got stories like that with consequent feelings of guilt, as if they were complicit in the assaults. One instance in my life was during trade school where I was one of the first few women. Every day the school director called me to his office & verbally sexually assaulted me. I knew he would throw me out of school if I told him off so I objected as firmly & insistently as I could without hauling off & slugging him in the face. The other students suspected I was engaged in something sexual so when I emerged from his office, I faced their wrath & sometimes outright abuse. This was all entirely new to me since until then I’d worked in mixed gender workplaces. There was almost no concept of this kind of behavior outside of brothels. There were no laws about sexual harassment to protect me. I was on my own & had no idea how to handle the situation. The director punished my refusal to allow his abuse by denying me an apprenticeship when I graduated.

I am so grateful that these young women are speaking out & have the highest respect for their courage. After learning the hard way how to defend myself against verbal sexual assault I believe we need to teach the young the methods of self-defense & we need to fight for tougher laws that will punish these abusers in a court of law. If I had any legal protection in trade school, I’d have had his ass in court after the first instance. Weinstein will walk on these crimes against women just like Cosby, Ailes the Fox News guy, Bill O’Reilly, Trump, & all the others because that’s the status of women’s rights in the US today.

A Kashmiri woman picks up a tear gas canister to throw back at Indian forces during protests in Batmaloo area of Srinagar on Monday. On the one hand, such steely courage is mind-boggling. On the other, it is extremely traumatic for her when she has better things to do with her life than fight an occupying army.

Stand with Kashmiris. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Mubashir Khan/GK)

“Indian state despite its grave, unspeakable crimes against us, has not been able to kill our humanity, it has failed to make hatred the defining virtue of our struggle, despite its beastly behaviour we have not turned into beasts, instead we have retained our dignity and ethical fabric, despite being victims of an atrocious war imposed upon us we have maintained our moral compass, the humanitarian gestures like rescuing occupying soldiers even when most of them have been acting like savages is a reflection of who we are and what we aspire to be! In all this lies the biggest defeat of this oppressive state and our greatest victory, it also gives us hope that a free kashmir will not be built upon pathological hatred of the other, but upon the ideals of human fraternity, dignity and brotherhood. Kashmir today even in one of her most painful times has a lot of lessons to offer to Indians and world at large: we are willing to sacrifice our lives to achieve freedom but we won’t lose our morality in the process, we refuse to slip into savagery and hatred despite the cruelest provocations like killing and blinding of our children. As for us, Azaadi is not a mere destination but a means towards a more humane, just and ethical society…”

I keep losing Facebook friends, one after the other. And here I thought I was hot stuff. What a rude awakening. Again. Pretty soon it’ll be down to you & me against the world. If you keep reading, I’ll keep pounding out my views as part of my “do not go gentle into that good night” thing.

There is increasing aggression by Israeli settlers at Muslim holy sites, not just at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem. One of the other most violated religious sites is the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron which is the tomb of Abraham/Ibrahim in both Muslim & Jewish traditions. It’s a very volatile religious site since this where Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler from Brooklyn, NY, shot to death 29 Palestinian worshippers & injured 125 others in 1994. The Zionists aren’t trying to reclaim ancient holy sites from 3,000 years ago but are trying to destroy Muslim holy sites as part of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland. The settlers have no more claim to Ibrahimi Mosque than Irish-Americans do to the Rhineland where their ancient ancestors worshipped trees 3,000 years ago.

During the Jewish festival of Purim in 2016, Zionist settlers converged on Hebron & used loudspeakers at the Mosque to sing racist songs calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from Hebron, This is when Israeli soldiers encountered 21-year-old Palestinian Ramzi Qasrawi & his friend 21-year-old Abd Elfatah Ashareef. They shot & killed Ramzi & wounded Abd. Whilst Abd was lying motionless on the ground, Israeli soldier Elor Azaria walked up & shot him in the head. An Israeli military court let Azaria walk for extrajudicial execution with a sentence of 18 months for manslaughter. He was sentenced in February 2017 & let out on house arrest in July. During the Purim festival this year, Zionist settlers & right-wing provocateurs from Israel converged on Hebron to booze it up & intimidate Palestinians. The reveler-provocateurs were fully protected by a beefed up deployment of Israeli soldiers.

In September of this year, 3,000 emboldened Israeli settlers stormed the mosque & engaged in provocations like this photo where they projected the Israeli flag onto the facade of the Ibrahimi Mosque & prevented Palestinians from performing their obligatory prayers. Now, the Palestinian Information Centre reports that nearly 45,000 Israeli settlers stormed the mosque on Monday & Tuesday of this week. Israel imposed a curfew on Palestinian residents & closed off roads leading to the mosque so the busloads of provocateurs could move freely. There are 250,000 Palestinian residents in Hebron & less than 1,000 Israeli settlers so they are being bussed in by the thousands for the same reasons they are invading Al-Aqsa Mosque & it isn’t to worship Yahweh.

The most powerful way to support Palestinians against ethnic cleansing & the denial of religious freedom is to honor & promote the economic & cultural boycott of Israel. Buy nothing with barcode beginning 729 & check every label on every product you buy. Stand with the Palestinians who have fought fearlessly, despite being vilified as terrorists, for nearly 70 years.

(Photo from Students for Justice in Palestine, Kent State)