Anyone else ever watch “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”? To my mind, its clever, if not also tiresome kind of wit masks a pervasive, deep misanthropy. Humanity is portrayed as bloodthirsty & stupid & all the sympathetic characters are killed off in quite ferocious ways. The Black characters are all portrayed as contemptibly dimwitted, at least in the Neil Patrick Harris version I watched. The worst part is that the victims are young children. That’s not unlike the real world in the barbaric phase of capitalism so no one is demanding a fairy tale ending. But at least some sense of alternative to the bloodthirsty would be appreciated lest it lend itself to nihilism, the ideology of fascism.

Without apparently recognizing the sarcasm, CBS news reported Israel’s complaint that the Great Return March was intended to bring down the “fence”–a euphemism for the apartheid barrier making Gaza what is called an open air prison. Actually, the protests are intended to bring down a whole lot more than that damn fence. They’re intended to bring down the entire edifice of apartheid, occupation, & Zionist colonialism. In that regard, we cannot render them enough solidarity & active support.

This photo is an amputee, almost certainly from one of Israel’s bombing sieges over Gaza, who was again shot in his artificial limb during the Great Return March yesterday. The young man is suffering injuries from the bullet & must be reliving the horrors of the original amputation.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

Album of women manhandled, injured, brutalized by Indian occupying forces in Shopian district of Kashmir. Children, teenagers, women are all fair game to the Indian army.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

https://www.facebook.com/QNSNEWS207/posts/659406377582557

(Photos from QNS News 24×7)

Homemade tear gas mask at Great Return March in Gaza yesterday. Imagine if such wit & creativity were allowed to live free instead of under apartheid & a brutal military occupation.

Long live Palestinian Intifada.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

Scene from the Great Return March yesterday in Gaza: just so we know who it is Israeli troops are firing at.

When this man was asked why he attended the march, he answered, “We were forced out of our land & our children will make us return despite the will of the occupation.”

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

Palestinian protester in homemade protective gear to participate in unarmed, peaceful protest yesterday in Gaza for the right of refugees to return to their homeland: nine Palestinians were killed yesterday & over 500 were injured by Israeli occupying troops. In another expression of its moral & political bankruptcy, the UN called on both sides not to use violence though only one side is armed & shooting.

What’s noteworthy is that media coverage of the protests were not as hateful toward Palestinians as usual. One can hardly call the reports fair & balanced but at least they reported that Israel is shooting at unarmed protesters. Of course, it also had to raise the boogieman specter of Hamas terrorism, even though Hamas is the elected government of Gaza.

Stand with Palestinians in their fearless campaign to win the right of return for millions of Palestinians still living in refugee camps.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

Photo of 31-year-old Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja shot dead today by occupying Israeli troops. He was one of six Palestinian journalists shot, all of whom were wearing clearly marked press vests. May he Rest In Peace.

This is a very moving account by a Kashmiri poet who lost his family home & entire body of work in a hunt to kill operation when the occupying army razed the house.

https://www.facebook.com/sahafkashmiri007/videos/988189417995908/?hc_ref=ARTgh10oPR5UQMY_kZ1oQ1BeNkZCUzE-sUvxI4n83s9WDh5ARRg1ov9b-cH_ENpFqXw

Kashmiri Younus Bashir was bounced from FB after changing his profile photo to that of former Pakistani cricketeer Shahid Afridi who tweeted in support of the Kashmiri struggle against occupation & for self-determination. Afridi took quite a torrent of racist abuse for his tweet. Please take a moment to sign & share this petition to get Younus’s account reinstated. It’s a simple gesture standing with Afridi against the anti-Pakistani rubbish & with Younus & other Kashmiris against censorship on social media.

https://www.change.org/p/facebook-facebook-reinstate-the-account-of-younus-bashir?

(Photo is Shahid Afridi)

This is the story of a Kashmiri teenager blinded by pellet munitions in 2017. He was not involved in protesting when he was twice struck. It’s a moving story of how a young, sighted person copes & adjusts to the new reality of disability, disfigurement, & lost dreams. That adjustment is very difficult, especially for young people or those without means for rehabilitation. But as we know from disability rights activists, disability is not a death sentence & new dreams can be forged if people do not have to make that transition alone but have support from others. This young man wants his story told & Mubashir Naik has done so powerfully:

Farzan Nazir, a 17-year-old teenager from Srinagar, Kashmir, is living a most miserable life nowadays. Today when his friends play a cricket or any other game, Farzan, who always used to go with them, has to remain a mute spectator because his eyes have no sight to see what his fellows are doing. The story of Farzan does not stop here: nowadays the craze of selfies is at a peak but for him it’s another painful sight. When his friends take a selfie with him he usually bows his head down to hide his blind eyes. Farzan was hit twice by the occupied forces during the years of 2017 when he was 16. The first time he was hit by pellets on his left was on 17 march 2017 when was out to bring milk for his family which damaged his left eyesight. But after this episode he didn’t lose hope & remained in touch with books in order to appear in his 10th class exam. But the innocent guy didn’t know that his dream will never be fulfilled & on the evening of 17th August, when he went out on the street to switch off the street light which was irritating him, he was hit by pellet again & this time both his eyes were damaged. A determined Farzan attended his paper which was written down by his helper & he passed his exam. But he is asking everyone ‘how can I complete my aim now with these blind eyes’? Farzan a young man was dreaming to become a software engineer but all his hope has been shattered & now he wants to die instead of living this life. For him death is better than life for him. Farzan doesn’t belong to a rich family. His father is a middle class person who runs a little shop to earn his bread & butter. Farzan last but not least wishes that people should turn united to fight this oppression so that in the future there may be no injuries like those done to Farzan. If yesterday was his turn to suffer, tomorrow maybe another & the violence process will continue. He also wants to get help by people so that he can go abroad for treatment if any miracle will bring his eyesight back. He wants his story to be heard by the international community. Because at 17, he is cursing himself & asking everyone why he wasn’t targeted with a bullet when pellets hit him the second time.

The photos are of Farzan before he was blinded, in hospital, & hiding his face during a selfie with friends.