Palestinian & Arab sources who have been briefed about the Kushner/Trump “deal of the century” say it has abandoned all pretenses about a two-state solution. That is certainly no surprise since that is the logic of the Oslo Accords. If Mahmoud Abbas & the Palestinian Authority are resistant to the new deal, it is only because any further need for their services to Israel would become obviated. They were installed to implement & enforce the provisions of the Oslo Accords which legitimized the occupation & expropriation of Palestine.

It’s not a bad thing that delusions about a bantustate solution are shattered. What’s threatening is that the US & Europe are signaling their intent to accelerate Israel’s colonization, apartheid, genocide & ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. That is a clarion call to educate about the importance of & build BDS & to build a consistent, massive, public movement in solidarity with Palestinian self-determination & political power. The one-state solution that would come out of this deal would be a racist, Jewish-only apartheid state. That puts the proposal of Palestinian visionaries back up front where it belongs: a democratic, secular state where Palestinians & Jews would be equal & learn to live with each other as brothers & sisters.

Photo is Palestinian refugees in Syria protesting the Kushner/Trump deal which would preclude them from ever returning to their homeland.

(Photo from Action Group for Palestinians of Syria)

People get testy as hell whenever the Dalai Lama is criticized, but just how much racist, xenophobic, & Islamophobic rubbish does he get to say before they admit that his politics stink? Not for the first time, he told a British interviewer that Europe could become Muslim or African if refugees are allowed to stay. “A limited number is okay but whole Europe eventually become a Muslim country? Impossible. Or an African country? Also impossible.”

What’s impossible is that people actually write articles denouncing those of us who call him out for such loathsome prejudice against Muslims & Africans. Everyone is held to account for their attitude toward refugees, even privileged refugees like the Dalai Lama.

The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons on the gruesome nature of 6,000 unmarked single & mass graves in Kashmir: ‘four times more than disappeared under Pinochet in Chile in an area the size of Ireland.’

https://www.facebook.com/apdpkashmir/photos/a.208258846186088/895437307468235/?type=3&theater

Grenoble, France authorities shut down two public pools during what is called an “unprecedented heatwave” after two women showed up to swim in burkinis. The two women went there as part of a protest campaign by women against the ban on the bathing suit worn mostly by Muslim women. Islamophobia shows its most malignant features in the so-called ‘war on terror’ by portraying all Muslims as terrorists. But whether used to justify wars (especially in Afghanistan & Syria), the expanding bans on veils all over the world, or the ban on burkinis in France, it focuses its venom on women. That’s why they’ve called on leading US & European feminists to support those wars & bans on veils as a way to liberate Muslim women from men & religion. The racism & misogyny of it is beneath contempt but still we must take a public stand against it to prevent this social derangement from spreading like a destructive virus.

Photo is Citizen Alliance of Grenoble/Alliance Citoyenne protesters at public pool.

(Photo from Citizen Alliance of Grenoble)

The main immigration rights group here which has been politically compromised for a long time is holding a vigil of mourning after dark (to make sure no one sees it) to remember those who have drowned crossing the Rio Grande River. Meanwhile, they have not held any protests at the child’s concentration camp here which is in the center of international news. And yes, I am talking about La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE).

Photo of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez & his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, drowned Sunday, June 23rd, in the Rio Grande River near Matamoros, Mexico across the river from Brownsville, Texas.

They were human beings, not aliens. May they Rest In Peace.

Family photo including Tania Vanessa Ávalos who watched helplessly while her husband and child drowned.

The Syrian Arab Spring is nothing if not tenacious. It has been battered as ferociously as the Yemen Arab Spring by massive military assaults from several governments–so threatening is the prospect of democracy in the Middle East.

In the midst of a several week Syrian & Russian carpet bombing siege over Idlib & Hama in northern Syria, Arab Spring activists in the southern city of Dara’a poured into the streets after prayers last Friday with placards & banners expressing solidarity with the people of Idlib & Hama & demanding the release of detainees held in Assad’s gulag. Their placards read “Oh Idlib & Hama, Dara’a is with you until death” & payed tribute to Abdul al-Sarout whom Assadists are maligning as a terrorist. This is one of several Arab Spring protests in Dara’a in recent weeks which is extremely courageous & determined considering that Syrian & Russian ferocity in Idlib & Hama is directed most aggressively against those towns most active in the Arab Spring.

Stop the bombing in Idlib & Hama. Solidarity with the activists in Dara’a.

(Photo from Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)

Palestinian refugees in Syria are suffering unimaginably under the Assad regime’s counterrevolution against the Syrian Arab Spring. Their refugee camps have been demolished by bombing, they are denied entry into Jordan & Turkey as war refugees, hundreds who participated in the Arab Spring have been disappeared, arrested, tortured to death. While it is true that some Palestinians & many of their anti-Semitic supporters support the Assad regime, it is also true that many Palestinians, especially those from Syria, are campaigning vigorously in support of the Syrian Arab Spring uprising against the Assad dictatorship. Their work should not go unacknowledged or be shouted down.

This photo of a Palestinian refugee from Syria who was beaten by Turkish border guards is from the Facebook wall of Action Group for Palestinians of Syria. Please like & share their work. Be sure & remember this image next time someone tells you Erdogan or Assad are supporters of Palestinian self-determination.

Trump’s response to the drowning deaths of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez & his 23-month-old little girl Valeria is best left unquoted. We have a soulless halfwit & monster running the US government.