Commemorating the murder & rape of Asiya & Neelofar in Kashmir on May 29th 2009

It was on May 29th, 2009 that 17-year-old Asiya & her 22-year-old sister-in-law Neelofar were brutalized, raped, & murdered by Indian occupying forces in the Shopian district of Kashmir. There has been no justice for these young women nor for the estimated 10,000 other Kashmiri women raped by occupying forces in a systematic use of rape as a weapon of war.

This video by Basharat Amin is an excellent presentation on the case of Asiya & Neelofar. He has also written this article about the case:

https://www.videovolunteers.org/justice-elusive-when-security-fails-under-security-forces/

The point of commemorating these monstrous crimes is to continue demanding justice & to highlight the use of sexual oppression in war, occupation, & genocide. Kashmiri activists are playing a leading role in this international campaign against rape & sexual torture as an instrument of war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=fRgfZ-EaqtQ

https://www.facebook.com/hamedhashemi/posts/10156522656156410

Despite the picture of Slavok Zizek, his racist idiocies play a very small part in this video of Syrian revolutionist Yassin Al Haj Saleh succinctly but cogently refuting the betrayals of the Syrian Arab Spring uprising by so-called left intellectuals like Zizek & Tariq Ali who have taken the same political course as Christopher Hitchens on the Iraq War. It’s becoming clear that Assad supporters are an Islamophobic, rightwing cult–a large cult, but nevertheless, a propaganda cult, not an intellectual current. Yassin, who is now in exile, has written many invaluable articles & a book titled “Impossible Revolution” about the Syrian revolution against Assad.

Gazans try to break naval blockade; are arrested by Israeli navy & towed to Israeli port

Gaza flotilla May 29 (Quds News Network) May 29 2018

A flotilla of boats left the Gaza port this morning carrying student activists & wounded Palestinians for treatment, defying the 12-year Israeli blockade which prevents medical supplies from entering Gaza & patients from leaving for treatment. The Israeli navy is attempting to enforce the blockade. About an hour ago & nine miles out to sea, one activist on the flotilla told reporters: “We’re surrounded by Israeli warships to the left, the right, to our front & from behind. We’re stuck in the middle.” There were also reports of Israeli bombing on several sites along the Gaza Strip. It was reported just minutes ago at 12 miles out to sea that the Israeli navy has seized the freedom flotilla & passengers have been taken by Israeli forces. Essentially, the apartheid regime, which calls the flotilla “a cynical publicity stunt,” has stopped the sick & injured from escaping Gaza to get life-saving medical treatment elsewhere.

(Photos from Quds News Network)

Shakira may be rethinking her support for apartheid Israel

Shakira and Shimon Peres
In 2011, Shakira defied appeals to honor BDS & went with her boyfriend soccer star Gerard Pique to attend the annual Israeli President’s Conference hosted by now deceased Shimon Peres. It was the conference Stephen Hawking pulled out of in 2013 in respect for the cultural boycott of Israel. Shakira, sharing the podium with Peres, opened the conference with a speech against inequality, segregation, & advocating for children, seemingly heedless of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid & genocide. Later she met with a group of Israeli & Palestinian children in one of those phony multicultural dog & pony shows that Israel puts on. She was scheduled to perform in Israel this July but has just cancelled after many appeals from BDS, including a moving open letter from Great Return March organizers, Palestinian trade unions, university teachers, students, & other organizations. Her booking company did not cite BDS & promised she will perform later in Israel but certainly the slaughter of unarmed Palestinians, including young children, at the Great Return March must have shaken her commitment to Israel. There is no indication she is so corrupt as to turn her back on massacres but she certainly must be educated on how Israel is playing her to promote apartheid & genocide.

The Irish opera star Celine Byrne performed in Israel in January of this year & was scheduled to perform at a May 13th event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel (on the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians from their homeland) but she also cancelled due to the criticism she received for performing in January. Byrne doesn’t seem to get it when it comes to honoring BDS but it is the purpose of the movement to educate performers about how apartheid Israel, as apartheid South Africa did, uses culture to legitimize the expropriation & genocide of Palestinians. It’s not too late for Byrne to learn.

Two open letters from Palestinians to Shakira:http://www.palestinechronicle.com/open-letter-from-gaza-to-shakira-hear-our-call-from-gaza/
https://bdsmovement.net/Shakira

(Photo is from 2011 President’s conference in Israel)

What that vile & dishonest Amnesty report on ARSA does is put every Rohingya male under suspicion as a terrorist–or at least that is how media reports it. But to human rights activists not on the take, it puts Amnesty’s loyalties under scrutiny & Maung Zarni is right, we should be taking Amnesty to court for endangering Rohingya refugees.

“Rights Organizations are NOT above the Law: Rohingyas in diaspora, their Burmese supporters, international friends MUST take Amnesty International to court & request a judicial review on the report’s validity & grave risks at which Amnesty International put genocide victims.”

–Maung Zarni on scurrilous, dishonest Amnesty report claiming ARSA massacred Hindus in Arakan state in the midst of the Rohingya genocide

“Does Amnesty think themselves they have a great privilege than local Rakhine Buddhists? They can shit to others about how they interviewed the Hindus from Maungdaw in Sittwe.

If the government didn’t allow to interview the Hindus they won’t be able to do anything.

That’s the reason I say Amnesty collaborated with the government for the report.

They just copy and paste the government’s report. The interviews were just for the purpose of formalities.”

–Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin who does not pull his punches on the Amnesty report that ARSA massacred Hindus in the midst of the Rohingya genocide: