Israeli snipers at the Great Return March targeted unarmed protesters as well as medical staff as thousands of protesters gathered at five sites in Gaza along the apartheid fence. The Gaza health ministry reports that three Palestinians were killed today, 200 were injured with 154 hospitalized for gunshot wounds & tear gas inhalation. Sixty were wounded by gun fire, including a journalist shot in the foot & four medics were among those treated for tear gas inhalation. Protesters had to clear away razor wire coils that Israel placed in Gaza near the apartheid fence to deter the protesters from demanding the right of return for millions of Palestinians living in refugee camps.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein called the situation “deplorable” which is an entirely fatuous description for what can only be called a massacre. We should make it extremely difficult for Israel to continue vilifying Palestinians as terrorists after this unspeakable display of savagery against peaceful, unarmed protesters.

Photo is protesters & medics being drowned in tear gas at the march today.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

Facebook assiduously covers photos of bullet wounds & military violence, as if we’re little kids that need to be protected from cruel realities. But such refined sensibilities cover a multitude of deceptions. What Israel is doing to Palestinians & what India is doing to Kashmiris, Dalits, Muslims, & Rohingya need to be exposed, not censored.

Palestinian photojournalist Hisham Hamadah has been injured during the Great Return March in Gaza today. Journalist Abdel Rahman Alkahlout has been shot in the leg & journalist Lana Shaheen fell unconscious from tear gas lobbed at the press staff near the town of Khan Younis. Since two journalists have been killed & now 19 injured since March 30th & since they are all wearing clearly marked press vests, it appears Israeli snipers are targeting Palestinian journalists.

(Photos from sources on Twitter: Hamadah on top; Alkahlout on bottom right; Shaheen on bottom right)

https://www.facebook.com/unheardkashmir/videos/1223779717725713/?fref=mentions

A very good video from Kashmir Unheard on Rohingya refugees in Jammu being subjected to racist & xenophobic campaigns by Hindutva nationalists–the same forces rallying in defense of Asifa’s murderers:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/04/israel-arms-embargo-needed-as-military-unlawfully-kills-and-maims-gaza-protesters/
Amnesty International today issued a call to governments worldwide to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel because of its “murderous assault against protesting Palestinians, with its armed forces killing & maiming demonstrators who pose no imminent threat to them.”

Photos of wounds caused by butterfly bullets being used by Israeli snipers against unarmed Palestinian protesters.

(Photos from several sources on Twitter)

A report last week from Doctors Without Borders/MSF physicians & medics who are treating the injured at the Great Return March in Gaza said, “Half of the more than 500 patients we have admitted in our clinics have injuries where the bullet has literally destroyed tissue after having pulverized the bone.” Doctors say they have seen no bullet injuries comparable since the seven-week Israeli bombing & artillery siege of Gaza in 2014. The reason for the severity of injuries is that Israeli snipers are using internationally banned butterfly bullets. But Israel knows its chances of being censured or prosecuted by the International Criminal Court are almost nil or will be after the fact.

Doctors report that exit wounds can be the size of a fist. The wounds cause massive tissue damage; can cause a range of diseases, including sepsis, gangrene, osteomyelitis; require complex surgical operations; may lead to amputation; & will cause permanent & serious disability. There is one unconfirmed report of 21 cases of limb amputation in Gaza since the Great Return March began on March 30th.

Stand with Palestinians against this barbaric genocidal siege. Honor BDS & gather in solidarity rallies where you can.

Photo is a butterfly bullet which opens on impact with human flesh.

(Photo from several sources)

Despite their injuries, Palestinians resume the Great Return March in Gaza at the apartheid fence. Since the campaign for the right of Palestinian refugees to return began on March 30th, 42 unarmed protesters have been shot dead by Israeli snipers, & over 5,511 have been injured by live ammo & tear gas, including 21 cases of limb amputations.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

“Our indifferent response to US/Israel backed Saudi attack on a gas station in Yemen killing 21 and wounding 15, mostly women and children proves our dichotomous thinking. We must remember that moral exclusivity and selective mourning can’t hide gross asymmetries of the continuing conflicts in different parts of the world. Innocent killing in Yemen is as much condemnable as innocent killing in Palestine or Syria or Afghanistan or Iraq or Kashmir or Pakistan or anywhere in this world. Therefore, when our sympathy only reaches out to the innocent killing of a selected group, we actually act as a supporter to the atrociousness of violence going on with the other group.

When an innocent human being is killed we cannot think of him as Yemeni or Kashmiri or Syrian or Palestine or Iraqi or Pakistani or Afghani. There must be no distinction, and no separation according to which “side” we are on but humanity.”

–Zafar Iqbal

We should take a moment to honor Kashmiri Rehti Begum, the mother of a son forcibly disappeared by the Indian occupying army. Rehti died yesterday from a heart attack. She was an active member of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons since it began in 1994:

With immense grief, we regret to inform you that Rehti Begum, 70, one of the trustees of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), passed away Thursday morning 26 April 2018. She died of heart attack.

Rehti Begum who lived in Cheke Kawoosa Narbal, Budgam, was the mother of Mohammad Ramzan Sheikh. Mohammad Ramzan was a daily wage labourer who was subjected to enforced disappearance after being abducted from his home by the personnel of Central Reserve Police Force in 1990.

Rehti was an active member of APDP since its inception in 1994, who would regularly participate in the monthly sit-ins at Partap Park.
Her dedication to the cause of enforced disappearances remained undeterred until her last breath. Even though her search for her son remains unfulfilled, we the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), pledge to carry on with her unresolved search for her son on her behalf and take it forward to its fruitful end.

The struggle against the enforced disappearances in Kashmir has been led by APDP since 1994. Since then, APDP has lost the family members of some of the victims of enforced disappearances, who fought for their disappeared loved ones and kept their struggle alive until their last breath with dignity.

We lost Dilshada Shiekh, Moghal Maas, the single mother of Nazir Ahmad Teli who kept her search alive for her only child; Misra Begum, mother of Shabir Ahmad Ghasi; AbdurRazaq Dar, father of Mehrajuddin Dar, and many others.

Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons has been a socio-political movement against enforced disappearances in Kashmir since 1989. APDP is dedicated to providing for as well as legally fight on behalf of the families of the victims of enforced disappearances in Kashmir.

Chairperson
APDP