It was inevitable, after so many praised Hatari for crossing the BDS picket line & waving a Palestinian flag, that others would also praise Madonna for sticking a Palestinian flag on one of her dancers. Picket lines are inviolable in labor circles as they should be in political circles. No one has the authority to pick & choose who can violate them. That isn’t how boycotts & picket lines work. Those who cross them are called scabs. Do any Israeli citizens have the authority to make exceptions for Israel’s embargo of Gaza? But now with the Hatari guys & Madonna being called heroes for scabbing BDS, all any musician or academic has to do to flout the cultural boycott of Israel & be called a champion of Palestinians is to stick an image of the Palestinian flag on their suitcase or their ass when they travel to Israel. How degrading to the Palestinian flag. How demeaning to their struggle. Shame on those who assume the authority to preempt BDS. There are principles involved. There are commitments & no one is above them. For heaven’s sake, get it together!
Monthly Archives: May 2019
Since most of us never knew about the freedom struggle in Kashmir until the past few years, it is not exaggeration to say that the current coverage in international media of the JKCCS torture report is due to the educational & agitational work of Kashmiri activists on social media which made their struggle public & no longer easily subject to a systematic news blackout.
A Sudanese protester holds the national flag with writing in Arabic that means “Civilian Only” during a rally outside the army headquarters in Khartoum on May 2nd. Governments around the world, particularly those in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, & the US are watching developments in Sudan with extreme vigilance. And not just watching but working behind the scenes to make sure the military retains control of the government. All neoliberal (the new colonialism) plans for the continent depend on preventing the spread of democracy in order to facilitate greater plunder. The Sudanese uprising is of the greatest consequence for the future of democracy & freedom in all the African countries. The Sudanese protesters have drawn the lessons particularly of the Egyptian Arab Spring uprising that military rule must be definitively ousted & democratic civilian rule installed.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/sudan-quiet-way-derail-revolution?fbclid=IwAR3O-
(Photo by AFP)
“We dedicate this report to those countless & unheard survivors of torture in Jammu & Kashmir, who despite all tribulations & continuous fear have decided to speak truth to power.”
JKCCS report on Indian government’s use of torture in Kashmir: http://jkccs.net. Go to “Publications & Reports” menu to see report.
Kashmiri human rights groups Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society & Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons issue first comprehensive report on Indian Army’s use of torture in Kashmir which includes water boarding, electrocution, sexual humiliation.
A brief documentary about torture in Kashmir by Indian occupying forces.
There is no way in hell that this monstrous betrayal of small refugee children by US officials was unintentional. Those officials responsible should be hunted down & prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Throw the book at them.
At the risk of angering many, it should be frankly said that it is a serious political misjudgment to get on social media & applaud Hatari for crossing the BDS picket line. It encourages freelancing & grandstanding & renders confusion about the commitment to honor BDS. The Hatari guys are not heroes. They tried to have it both ways: advance their careers by compromising with Israeli colonialism. The flag thing was just a stunt & not a whit different than Madonna putting it on the back of one of her dancers. Palestinians deserve so much better than that kind of bullshit. There are principles in politics & not crossing a picket line is one of them.
Watching a 1998 Denzel Washington film titled “The Siege” where a terrorist cell in Brooklyn is Palestinians. A lot of the dialogue asperses them, including the racist repugnancy said by Annette Bening (playing a CIA agent) that Palestinians “seduce you with their suffering.” It’s useful to be reminded that blatant Islamophobia & a terrorist portrayal of Arabs & Palestinians precedes 9/11. Has anyone done a review to see just how far back this crap goes?