Brazilian far-right president Bolsonaro arrived today in Israel for a state visit with Netanyahu. Bolsonaro said they would be signing undefined “security” deals & for Brazil to do oil & gas exploration offshore Israel. Bolsonaro wanted to announce a move of the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem but there is opposition within his government because some believe it would hurt Brazilian exports to Arab countries. According to one official, at stake is an estimated $5 billion in sales of halal food that comply with Muslim dietary laws. Perhaps those Brazilian officials could tell us which Arab countries have exhibited any real solidarity with Palestinians.

When Bolsonaro left Brazil for Israel yesterday, thousands of Brazilians were protesting in solidarity with Palestinian Land Day & with the one-year anniversary of the Great Return Marches in Gaza.
Photo is of protest yesterday in Brazil for Palestinians.

(Photo via Moneeb Saada)

“On Sunday, Hindi Film actor Payal Rohatagi, said “If Article 370 can’t be removed then ask Kashmiri Muslims 2 evict Kashmir. Centre should make it Defence area. Kashmiris start living in other cities of India.”
“Bollywood actors talk about Kashmir as if our ancestors had sold every last inch of our land to them. Then forget everything, isn’t it the same industry that has been demonizing Kashmiris for last 70 years. Those who can’t pronounce the names of our places correctly, have provided an artistic shield to the war criminals, cashes on every tragedy, openly distorts the history and culture of Kashmir with their notional tales , duplicates a scene of war crime in a movie, demonizes the martyr’s and openly justifies the war in Kashmir. This is not a shocker. Anti-Kashmir sentiment sells. People don’t have to hide behind fake accounts to issue threats of open execution and genocide of Kashmiris. The violence against Kashmiris has been mainstreamed . It’s promoted on prime time. But then who wants to dig into her background only to find out that her entire career has been a disaster and this is her last try to reach to a little stardom.”

–Zachriah Sulayman

My Way is Not Your Way
by Faleh Abdul Rahman
(My verses, no matter how much I stretch them, make them longer, stop then start once again; all my doubtful questions and ideas which challenge each other in the heads and in the hands are but persons that are part of an ancient tragedy which will not conquer the hero…Forward it pushes him (a conscious hero) till the great end. FALEH)
I
For the sad people there is a small question,
For those who as they march forget to cry
They mix the salt of the bitter tears with the
Winds of defeat,
Also for those who in coffee houses, daydream:
“How long…?” Then I fall silent.
I do not want
To be drawn into speaking
Words said, with love-perhaps-with sympathy,
All of them, words that are being uttered
All of them, words that do not lead to a hill
at which the eyes of a mother stare with fear
as she shouts at you: WHY?
Why the cross?
II
“About death..”
NO
About death we cannot talk;
There are so many ways that lead to death
that lead to acceptance or to refusal
(of death–so that the battle will not be lost)
I shall ask myself: and what..
My dear, you say
I shall gather my arms to refuse not death
But your way
I shall put on the appearance of those who know,
Because I want to live.
(The June of Paris..its works are being forced
to retreat
slowly.
And amongst the final rubbles, where one halts at last
there the tears of defeat rise up, so violently,
so bitterly.
And the workers of Madrid behind their barricades
Many of them fall
in order that those who would still survive
will be able to declare:
“We will not allow them to pass here”
It is in the air as well–
For whom my friend, for whom this echo still vibrates.
I shall say in my theatrical sincerity:
There are two alternatives for this discourse:
My way is not your way
(here I do not say exactly, my friend)
For I doubt very much
That the woman who stood on a hill and wept
Received any answer
(because the only one who used to know–died)**
III
And I laugh:
(I would have drunk enough)
And I laugh, then I say–as a last solution:
“A new Messiah will come”
(I have read–I say):
“He will come, but he will not carry a cross
He will carry a bottle of oil
And put fire out of it in all the buildings
Those buildings with glass that feed
the illusions of our dreams.
He will put fire in all the banks,
Then he will sit down after the fire is finished
Near the sad men
And will nudge them joyfully
And he will laugh and laugh and laugh
Till the tears start falling down”
I would feel I have gone a bit far
(I shall start counting how much I have drank)
And I fall silent
I decide–my way is not your way–
I shall be silent
Will be silent
So silent
Up till the very end.
_________
**
Then I shall say: because you
Know more than he does
Because you read–you know many things
About sorrow, about death, about love–
Can you forgive?
Translated from Arabic by Kamal Boulatta

Me (on the left) with my younger sister Nancy in the schoolyard In Hugo, Minnesota about 1950. Nancy & I called each other ‘honey’. She died in 1999.

The deliberate destruction of Kashmiri family homes by Indian occupying forces during one of their constant hunt to kill operations: often livestock are killed & of course civilians & unarmed protesters are injured or killed.

(Photo from Kashmir News)

SAKA
March 26, 2018 · Quezon City, Philippines ·
We condemn Facebook’s role in supporting the US-Duterte regime’s suppression of dissent. It has consistently blocked, taken down, and dismissed as “spam” shares of links from the website of the progressive peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) Just a few weeks ago, a statement by SAKA condemning the conferment of the power to issue subpoenas on PNP Chief Bato dela Rosa was similarly taken down, revealing whose interests this social media platform serves in the fight against land grabs, human rights violations and impunity.
#StopKillingFarmers #EndImpunity #ResistCrackdown

SAKA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saka.pilipinas/?hc_location=ufi