Since June, Facebook has suspended me four times for 30 days each for posts they claim violate their community standards. The third suspension on September 12th, which approached farce, was rescinded in just over a day. Facebook has no procedures for contesting suspension. I’m posting the suspension notices here to show that there isn’t one thing objectionable about them except their politics. It is part of the censorship onslaught against Palestinian, Kashmiri, & Rohingya activists on social media whose accounts are being shut down right & left. When I updated my blog, I drew from my Facebook wall which automatically posts to my Twitter wall & compared it with my Twitter posts. Facebook not only has suspended me but without my knowing had deleted several posts, most of them dealing with Syria & Kashmir.
These are the offending posts:
June 5th suspension notice:
July 27 suspension notice: this post which was in poetic form was written by a Muslim as a sardonic protest against the lynching & murder of an Indian Muslim by cow vigilantes. It’s unlikely the Facebook censor had any idea what it was about.
September 12 suspension notice which was rescinded:
September 18 suspension notice which I am presently enduring:
After the counterrevolution against the Syrian Arab Spring uprising prevails, will those who supported counterrevolution & dictatorship–like Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Patrick Cockburn–get to keep their éminence grise status? Or will their political limitations & corruption be finally recognized?
Fascists Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley, again embedded up the ass of the Syrian army, are in Idlib trying to get some dirt on the White Helmet rescue workers & blithering on RT (wholly owned by the Kremlin) about how ‘terrorists associated with the White Helmets’ are kidnapping children to act in films depicting “false flag” chemical attacks by Syria. The two are so well remunerated by the Assad regime & so embedded in the nether regions of the army that they haven’t reported on the over 1.5 million civilians protesting in cities across Idlib province against Syrian, Russian, & Iranian ground & aerial bombardment. If the role they are playing in strengthening fascism, Islamophobia, & anti-Semitism in Syria & elsewhere weren’t so profoundly despicable, it would be farce.
If there is anything that shows the irrationality of racism, supremacism, genocide, it is the glory of children. This photo of little Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh was taken by Rohingya activist Imran Mohammed.
This young man named Mohammed Z Alrimawi was tortured to death in an Israeli military prison. We should take a moment to honor him after a life lived under apartheid, colonialism, genocide. May he Rest In Peace.
This is 15-year-old Mustafa Abdulhadi who was gunned down by an Israeli sniper at the Great Return March last Friday. It’s not accidental either in Palestine or Kashmir that so many of those killed, disabled, disfigured, arrested are young kids. The same phenomenon prevails in the US Black, Latino, & Native American communities & elsewhere in conditions of war, occupation, & genocide. Children represent rebellion & resistance to the oppressors & are directly targeted & terrorized, not accidentally killed.
Standing for children means actively opposing war, occupation, genocide. May Mustafa Rest In Peace.
In a powerful act of human solidarity, Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin (on the left) & Maung Zarni (in the middle) attend a rally in support of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka against genocide.
This young man named Suhail Ahmed Trambo from the Pulwama district, Kashmir, was blinded in one eye by pellet gun injuries in 2017. Now Indian occupying authorities have arrested him under the Public Safety Act which allows India to detain someone up to six months without charges or trial. It is an entirely lawless, arbitrary act. Several other young people were also arrested. Suhail has three sisters & is the sole wage earner for his family. In appealing to authorities for his release, his family said he is not a stone pelter anymore. Even if he were a stone pelter or even if he was a militant, India has no damn right to occupy Kashmir & is violating every standard of international law by using pellet munitions against protesters.
Free Suhail Ahmed Trambo. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.
This is an 11-year-old Kashmiri boy named Nasir Qazi who died from pellet gun injuries on September 17, 2016 during the uprising against the assassination of B. Wani, the man whose funeral prayers were attended by 600,000 Kashmiris but whose name or photo cannot be posted on FB without a suspension. Deaths & injuries are such a constant in Kashmir & Palestine, as well as in the several war & genocide zones, that it is impossible to honor them all individually or imagine the grief their families & friends endure. We should take a moment to honor them all for their contributions to the cause of human freedom. They were the very best of humanity inspiring & emboldening young & old alike. May they Rest In Peace as we carry on their work.