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)

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

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)

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)

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)

Protests in South Korea against the saber-rattling of Dumb-as-a-Stump Trump. We can expect a similar greeting for him from the antiwar movement in the Philippines, including burning of his effigy.

https://www.facebook.com/fox8news/videos/10154916820147623/?hc_ref=ARQyWecFSBc4HZah_Nhx98VfHrthsnDgHUUzWATo_9DpJapts24hatWsckXbGH95UuQ&pnref=story

“Today, 13 terrorists of Indian Army injured in road accident on Kashmir highway; five critical. 👉Terrorists were in valley on a Mission Occupation.”

#FreeKashmir

–tweeted by Rida Rubab‏ @RidaRubabSayed

There are three narratives about Burma still clung to by politicians & in media which are mocked by realities of the Rohingya genocide.:

First is the portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi as a fallen angel & champion of human rights heading a civilian government. What we now know for certain is that the fascist military junta has always ruled Burma & used the facade of a civilian government to remove US & European sanctions. Suu Kyi was an essential component & willing accomplice in that deception.

Second is the narrative that actions by ARSA terrorists incited the Burmese military to genocide. What we now know is that the junta was preparing militarily for the genocide long before alleged ARSA actions on August 25th. But the torching of hundreds of villages, the rape, torture, murder of hundreds & the diaspora of between 600,000 & 800,000 Rohingya are not in proportion to even the alleged ARSA actions.

Third & the most pernicious narrative is calls for repatriating Rohingya refugees back to Burma when the genocide has not yet ceased, while the junta & Suu Kyi continue to deny it is going on, when thousands of Rohingya are still fleeing for their lives. It is a vicious sarcasm that Burma & Bangladesh are engaged in discussions about an orderly method of repatriation when Bangladesh has not been able to provide an orderly method for asylum, when Burma will not take back Rohingya refugees & those repatriated for show would be subject to continuing genocide. The main issue is that Rohingya refugees are not even consulted about what they want. There can be no decisions made about their future without their direct & democratic involvement.

Focusing on repatriation is a switch & bait maneuver since Rohingya are fleeing Burma for their lives, not attempting to return to certain death. The first demand of governments must be that Burma end the genocide by immediately withdrawing all its troops & dismantling its bases in Arakan state. The need right now is not repatriation to a death trap but massive refugee assistance in Bangladesh, including asylum in whichever country they wish to relocate with safe transportation, visa rights, & access to work, housing, education, healthcare, social services.

This photo is of 5-year-old Rahim Ullah standing in a food line at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. If the Bangladeshi government can’t provide a humane system to feed hungry kids, who would trust it to negotiate a humane repatriation program? You cannot repatriate people back to genocide.

(Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

The photo (on left) of Faris Odeh was taken October 29, 2000. Faris was a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza protesting the Israeli occupation. Ten days later on Nov 8th, young Odeh was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in another stone throwing incident. Thousands of Palestinians attended his funeral. Captured in this iconic moment, he remains a symbol of courage & resistance not just to Palestinians but to all who struggle for justice.

Kashmiri photojournalist Showkat Nanda had the image of Faris Odeh in mind when he took the photo (on right) of a small Kashmiri boy facing off with stones against an Indian armored vehicle in 2009. In a very moving account, Nanda described how Indian paramilitary forces were shooting at unarmed protesters in the town of Baramulla. Young boys carried the body of an injured boy shot in the chest away from the scene & handed him to Nanda as he died. As gunfire cleared the scene of protesters, this small boy came running toward the paramilitaries “as if from nowhere” to stand defiant & fearless against the armored vehicle.

For his fearless defiance against occupation, young Odeh has been called an “adolescent daredevil.” Islamophobes claim his martyrdom is due to “Islamization” & the “culture of death” of Palestinian resistance even though many Palestinians are Christian. Some say stone-throwing is a distraction for children who do not understand the danger. Did the unidentified Tank Man of Tiananmen Square who stood defenseless against an army tank not understand the danger!? Did Rachel Corrie, mowed down by an Israeli bulldozer, not understand the danger? Is it conceivable that Odeh & this young Kashmiri boy stood in front of 60-ton vehicles without grasping the danger? Or is it more likely that commentators underestimate the ardor & commitment of young people, don’t have a clue about fearless commitment to justice & about the willingness to brave all against oppression & occupation?

We should take a moment to honor Faris Odeh on the 17th anniversary of his death & to honor this Kashmiri boy & all Palestinians & Kashmiris who have lost so much & stand so fearlessly against military occupation & colonialism.

Our fullest respect & solidarity.

(Photo on left of Faris Odeh from Laurent Rebours/AP; photo on right of Kashmiri boy by Showkat Nanda)

CBS morning news gave a lengthy report about Trump not visiting the DMZ between North & South Korea, including a history of all the US presidents visiting the place & how they traveled there. A subject of interest to no one. Not a peep about wars, refugees, occupations, genocide. Subjects of interest to millions of us.