There is no dispensation for “national sovereignty” allowing the bombing of civilians in Syria

Crying boy

“War kills from the inside out. #Syria”

–tweeted by Free Syria Media Hub

Despite the corruption of the antiwar movement, there is no dispensation for “national sovereignty” allowing the Assad dictatorship, Russia, & the US to carpet bomb civilians. Once the movement subscribed to such a debasement of antiwar principles in Syria, it signed its own death warrant & aligned with fascism. There is nothing left for it to do but skulk off the stage of history. A new movement must be built that makes no compromises with militarism nor with dictatorship. That is the historic mission of our generation.

(Photo from Free Syria Media Hub)

So many sincere Palestinian supporters were taken in by Assadist propaganda about Syria & couldn’t see the Islamophobia & anti-Semitism integral to Assadist apologetics & analyses. They got caught up in the Wahhabi/Salafi head-choppers & “Greater Israel” crap. So now the leading figures & publications of Assadism/fascism, including Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Global Research, have come out supporting the fascist Burmese military & denying or justifying the genocide against the Rohingya people. That puts them on the same side as Israel which is being condemned even by some Zionists for arming the Burmese military. How does that sit with misguided Palestinian supporters? It’s not too late to smarten up but it’s gonna be if they cannot separate themselves from genocide & counter-revolution.

Diana Nyad, the first woman to swim from Cuba to Florida, was on the news speaking powerfully against sexual assault which she experienced from one of her high school coaches. Regrettably, she explained that sexual predators target women & children who they think most vulnerable & least likely to resist or tell. That is frequently propounded by well-meaning people but it is a form of blaming the victim. They were not victimized because they were weak. All children are vulnerable to predators & most young women are not prepared for the sleaziness, smarminess, & power dynamics involved.

Weekly Palestinian protests against expansion of Qadomem settlement

Protests at Kofr Qadom (Mohamad Torokman:Reuters) Nov 10 2017

This Palestinian protester is involved in the regular Friday protests in the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum against the nearby Zionist settlement of Qadomem. This is the habitual depiction in photojournalism of Palestinian (& Kashmiri) activists as lone nihilistic youth engaged in aggressive actions. It doesn’t show that off camera are Israeli troops with assault weapons, tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, & armored vehicles with skunk fluid against unarmed protesters trying to stop Israeli expropriation of their lands. They’re burning tires to prevent armored vehicles from running them down.

Qadomem was settled in 1975 by the Gush Emunim settlement movement, a rabid cult that combined Zionism with religious fanaticism. They believed God gave Palestine to the Jewish people & that they are fulfilling a biblical prophecy by taking over the land they call Judaea & Samaria. While Gush Emunim no longer exists as an organization, Qadomem is still run by religious & political zealots with ties to the most right-wing political forces in Israel. Under international law, all settlements on the West Bank are illegal but under Israeli ethnic cleansing policies a distinction is made between legal settlements authorized by the Israeli government (like Qadomem) & illegal outposts which are settlement expansions built after 1991. Qadomem operates a construction company that builds outposts, homes, community & industrial buildings, shopping centers, synagogues, roads, walls–all on Palestinian lands.

The false distinction in Israeli law is completely ignored in practice by Zionist settlers expanding on confiscated Palestinian lands while protected by Israeli occupying soldiers. If the Israeli government takes any steps to dismantle one of the outposts or new construction in the West Bank, the settlers use a tactic called the “price tag policy” which exacts revenge not on the Israeli army but on local Palestinians, including more vandalism of Palestinian property, physical attacks on Palestinians, burning of mosques & fields, uprooting of olive trees, damaging & defacing property.

One marvels at the seemingly inexhaustible resistance to colonialism by Palestinians. But they cannot stand alone & unarmed against one of the most ruthless & high-tech armies in the world. Build & honor BDS, the economic & cultural boycott of Israel. Buy nothing with barcode beginning 729 & check every label on every product.

(Photo by Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)

Israeli armored vehicle chases 5-year-old Palestinian boy with skunk water

Pal boy chased by armored vehicle

While investigating Palestinian protests against Zionist settlements near the village of Kafr Qaddum in the West Bank, I came across this article posted in 2015 by Zafar Iqbal from Kashmir. It’s about a small boy being chased by an Israeli armored vehicle spraying skunk fluid. The article includes a sequence of photos showing the vehicle chasing down the little guy. What kind of politics justifies such unspeakable cruelty to children? The politics of colonialism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing–i.e., Zionism.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765453

Aung San Suu Kyi utters banalities on visit to genocide zone

Ro man helping kids cross Naf (Adnan Abidi:Reuters) Nov 9 2017

Apparently there are diehards who cling to Aung San Suu Kyi for hope in ending the Rohingya genocide. They are either imbeciles who need to get over their delusions or shysters who thought they had a good thing going with her human rights facade to the fascist military junta that really runs Burma. She’s a monster who has fronted for the junta & now stands exposed as a partner in genocide, not a champion of human rights.

Last week, accompanied by military officials, Suu Kyi traveled by military helicopter to northern Arakan state where the Rohingya genocide is centered. She met with a group of unidentified Muslim religious leaders & in the midst of genocide by military & Buddhist nationalist death squads chided them to ‘live peacefully, not to quarrel with each other, & assured them the government is there to help them’. Reuters, whose reporting on the Rohingya genocide has been particularly loathsome, actually reported this two-bit homiletic by Suu Kyi as though it were news rather than manure.

Reuters has been publishing albums from the Burma-Bangladesh border which bely their reports, including this photo of a young Rohingya man helping children to safely cross the Naf river to Bangladesh.

(Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

Rohingya refugee children face grave dangers

Ro  girl is weighed at the emergency nutrition treatment center in Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. REUTERS:Navesh Chitrakar

The plight of Rohingya refugee children remains very grave, including the threat of malnutrition & infectious disease & the large number of children who were orphaned or were separated from their families in the flight from Burma. There have reportedly only been hit or miss attempts in the camps to help reunite children with their families & to identify those who have been orphaned & set up guardianship so they cannot be preyed upon. It’s a priority to establish a child protection system in the camps since it’s reported that human traffickers are already on the prowl posing as relatives or social service agencies.

Here a Rohingya girl is being weighed at an emergency nutrition center in Cox’s Bazar.

(Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

ASEAN summit will ignore Rohingya genocide

Ro refugees arriving from boats (REUTERS:Mohammad Ponir Hossain) Nov 9 2017

Twenty-one heads of government will be meeting in the Philippines from November 11th for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit hosted by president Rodrigo Duterte. ASEAN is basically a free trade/sweatshop economics alliance. The ten member nations of ASEAN, including Burma, will meet with officials from Australia, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia & the US.

The public agenda includes panels on medical technology, standardized printing, quality control methods, art & musical events, galas celebrating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, & panel discussions of the ASEAN human rights declaration adopted in 2012 (AICHR). The AICHR declaration is a lovely 11-page document full of high-flown sentiments to lay out the framework for human rights in the ten member nations but it has never acquired more value than toilet paper since Burma signed it while engaged in genocide against the Rohingya people & while the army was accused of using child soldiers, engaging in mass rape & scorched earth methods against other ethnic groups in a country that is a prison house of nations. What does this statement of AICHR principles mean to the fascist Burmese junta & Aung San Suu Kyi or for the Rohingya people:

“Every person is entitled to the rights & freedoms set forth without distinction of any kind, such as race, gender, age, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, disability, or other status.

“Every person has the right of recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Every person is equal before the law. Every person is entitled without discrimination to equal protection of the law.”

This AICHR human rights declaration will be lauded & reconfirmed at this ASEAN summit hosted by Duterte while he is engaged in a death squad war against the urban poor & a military offensive against Muslims; while Burma is involved in genocide; while Thailand is run by a repressive military junta; while human rights are a major issue in every other member nation; while the US is involved in several wars; while Russia, India & China are providing arms to Burma for genocide; while Russia is involved in carpet bombing civilians in Syria; while India is occupying Kashmir. The declaration is nothing more than window-dressing signifying nothing in terms of child labor, human trafficking, drug trafficking, militarism, occupation, democratic rights to dissent, political corruption, extrajudicial killings, refugee rights, religious freedom, genocide. It’s a mockery of human rights for Suu Kyi & Duterte & all the other shysters gathered at the ASEAN summit to wax poetic in a time of death squads, occupation, & genocide.

The photo is Rohingya refugees arriving by boat in flight from genocide in Burma. If the genocide against them is not on the agenda at the ASEAN summit, there’s no human rights there-there to that summit.

(Photo by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)