I look at repulsive Trump, I don’t just see hate, white & male supremacy, misanthropy; I see the real face of capitalist rule in the US, Britain, India, Burma, Israel, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Iraq, Japan, Mexico, & elsewhere. Trump lost the election but they handed it to him because Clinton’s populist rhetoric would have made the rightward stampede harder & take longer to carry out. Lesser evil panic is a fool’s game.

“All kinds of people will be wringing their hands about Trump’s “peace plan”.
We need to speak clearly:
Trump’s plan requires the Palestinian leadership to complete the late Yasser Arafat’s capitulation to Zionist oppression and domination.
Trump’s plan does not recognize the right of the people of Palestine to be free from military occupation and blockade.
Trump’s plan does not recognize the right of the people of Palestine to equality.
Trump’s plan does not recognize the right of the people of Palestine to sovereignty.
Trump’s plan does not recognize the rights of the Palestine refugees.
Trump’s plan cannot be defeated by hand-wringing, by diplomacy, by international law, or by “armed struggle”.
Trump’s plan cannot be defeated except by principled and well-organized mass action led by Palestinians who have clearly-articulated revolutionary-democratic goals and tactics.”

–Henry Lowi

In an interview, Jared Kushner (who is really really ugly) acknowledged that Palestinians were not consulted in formulating the new bantustate proposal. He also sneered at Palestinian resistance & suggested they were not ready for ‘statehood’. You look at him, you see Goebbels written all over his face.

The Kashmiri telecommunications blockade intentionally goes both ways. Now, after nearly six months, Kashmiris don’t know any more about what’s going on outside Kashmir than we know about what’s going on inside Kashmir. They don’t know there’s an emerging solidarity movement & we have no idea what is happening to them & to their resistance struggle. Under the mantle of a blockade, India is likely committing all sorts of human rights crimes. We just keep our focus on building solidarity because whether or not they know, it helps build Kashmiri political power.

“It’s quite clear that the Indian state doesn’t want any real journalism from Kashmir. It doesn’t want the story, as told by Kashmiris, to come out. This is why it has imposed the severest possible curbs and surveillance on Kashmiri journalists.

In the face of this authoritarian suppression of the press, Kashmiri journalists, infinitely more courageous than many of their counterparts in India, have worked hard, and with great dignity, to get the word out. They deserve the highest accolades.”

–Kashmiri writer Mirza Waheed

Tens of thousands of Syrian civilians are fleeing Syrian & Russian bombing as well as ground forces in Idlib. These photos are of fleeing civilians trying to protect themselves from the Syrian Army which is targeting them.

This is a map of Trump’s so-called ‘peace plan’ which he tweeted a few hours ago. It is first & foremost a scam, a temporizing maneuver to give Israel more time to fully implement the Oslo Accords which embody the terms of Palestinian surrender & legitimize occupation & expropriation. The map itself stands as testimony to that reality. There is no possibility of a two-state/bantustate solution for Palestinians. The only alternative to continued ethnic cleansing & genocide is the secular, democratic state proposed decades ago by Palestinian visionaries. That is the only solution which incorporates Palestinian self-determination while addressing the fate of Jews born & raised in Palestine.

There may be Israeli settlers in the West Bank unwilling to accept a secular, democratic state because of their rabid Zionism. No one ever thought a transition from colonial acquisition, apartheid, genocide would go smoothly. Settlers who cannot accept democracy may be compelled from persecuting & freeloading off Palestinians to move back to where they came from. It took a civil war to end slavery in the US but the alternative was no more acceptable than continued genocide against Palestinians.

(Map tweeted by Trump, January 28, 2020)

“The House Of Resistance

This is my mom’s home in Kashmir. It is located in the beautiful city of Bandipora, in a small village called Onagam. Her house is on a hill known as “Pir Both”, overlooking Kashmir. It’s quite picturesque and can make anyone fall in love instantly.

However, this house has it’s tragic tales to tell. Once upon a time, this house was bustling with voices and people. Now, it is ghostly, with the walls of the house slowly crumbling. Everything in the house that remains was purchased in the late 80s/early 90s. The last time this house was filled with voices of love, laughter, and happiness was at my mom’s wedding in 1987.

My family has always been vocal about injustice since the beginning of the fight for azaadi which originates in 1931. This has cost them serious trauma that can’t ever be healed. My family has voiced for peace, helped minorities in their community that felt threatened, and demanded that the voices of the people of Kashmir be heard.

In return, the young boys of my family were tortured, beaten, arrested, and detained. In some cases, even after 30 years they are unable to live healthy lives as the torture is physical, mental, and emotional which they are unable to overcome.

Then there are my cousins whom I only know through my mom’s wedding album. My mom speaks of one of her nephews, she says she thought for 10 years that one day she’d hear some news of him, but alas hope dies a tragic death. It was the hardest pill to swallow, knowing someone you love so much would never return nor could you find out what happened to them. I scroll through my mom’s wedding album, and can’t help but notice his beautiful smile and the life that was taken away from him, from us.

Then there were the boys we buried with our own hands, and to this day the pain never left us. The void can never be compensated for.

My mom’s elder brother has spent countless years in jail being tortured, eventually having to flee in very scary measures. My mamujaan is a teacher, a writer, and a freedom fighter. He has written many books on Kashmir. He speaks about the torture and the pain of being forced out of his land 30 years ago as a result of Indian terrorism. His last interrogation was in 1990, when he was booked under PSA (Public Safety Act) at interrogation center Harinawas, Srinagar. This traumatic interrogation which is still seen in Kashmir has roots in the early 80s. Despite all this, my mamu still wanted to continue talking about Kashmir and the injustice, and he took the step to leave his land. He didn’t want to spend his years in jail, he wanted to tell the world about what Kashmiris are facing, and that we don’t have a voice. After his unfortunate departure in 1990, he didn’t see his family or unborn daughter till 1999.

With my mamujaan leaving Kashmir in 1990, the Indian army kept terrorizing our house and took away my mamu’s only teenage son in to custody under PSA and brutally tortured him at Kotbalwal, Jammu. To this day, he is unable to speak of the torture as it is traumatic to even having to relive that reality. He was forced to flee Kashmir in 1995 as his life was threatened.

Following that, the harassment from the Indian army did not stop, with 4 daughters and no male in the household, the Indian army constantly harassing them, the womenfolk had no choice but to leave in 1999.

My grandmother refused to leave, she reiterated till the day she died that she would hold the doors open of this house for it’s children. She went on to live the last 10 years of her life all alone. Everyday for 10 years, she would first put out her son’s plate for lunch/dinner and would wail “kanh doh aasay suteh yelih beh sherrih yettih Farooq sabas batteh” ~ “will there ever be a day when I’m able to feed Farooq (her only son) at home.” Our neighbours would tell us how she would hold the plate of her son dreaming of the day she would be reunited with him, including a few hours before her death. This was a routine for her, even though nobody was there, she would talk to her son, and would make sure all his things are kept the same way as when he left.

On the day of her death, one of our relatives was visiting her and she said that I’ve heard there is a statement that all those displaced from Kashmir in 1990s are allowed to return. My cousin laughed and said, “you’re dreaming.” My grandmother was indeed dreaming, a few hours after this conversation she passed away. She couldn’t imagine having to lock the doors to her house, she couldn’t imagine that she’d be separated from her son till death.

In an unspoken way, we accepted my mamu and his family wouldn’t be able to return, nor did we ever speak of it.

Today, there is a man that still lives in this house. He was brought as a kid in the 60s to help out around the house. He spent his whole life caring for people of this house. After my grandmothers death, we thought he would leave and a lock would be placed on the doors. Rather, he has spent the last 13 years all alone, waiting for his children to return. When I show him pictures of my cousins, he holds them and wails. He says he could never leave and as long as he is alive the doors to his house will be open, and it’s children will be welcomed back home. Knowing what each one of us likes, he makes sure to prepare it, and when we come home, the love in his eyes and the pain is both a testament to what he has witnessed. Every time I visit, I feel like my grandmother is there with us. If only, for a minute.

I will never forget the sacrifices that this house has made. This house is a testament to the freedom struggle and the sacrifices made by countless Kashmiri households.

We are all a witness.

Esih chi saari shahid.”

–Ifrah Sahibzadi
January 26 at 2:11 PM

Palestinians don’t need to read the Trump regime’s entire 80-page ‘peace proposal’ to know it’s a scam & an electoral snow job. It is not a ‘historic milestone’, as Israeli leaders are calling it, but a commitment to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank & genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. It is an update of the Oslo Accords which formulated the conditions of Palestinian surrender & legitimized occupation & expropriation.

What is disturbing is that at a time of accelerated genocide, there is so little action in defense of Palestinians because of divisions over Syria in Palestinian solidarity & energy taken from organizing forums & rallies given to campaigning for Bernie Sanders. Election years always take a toll on independent political action as ‘lesser evil’ advocates chase down the candidate they see as savior. But this declaration of genocide by the Trump regime requires we think outside the electoral box to stand with Palestinians at a critical time in their struggle for self-determination. Not just self-determination, but survival against snipers, bombs, wholesale expulsion from their lands & the demolition of their villages.

This photo is a mural in Gaza City of Trump with a footprint stamped on his face to show what Palestinians think of his ‘peace plan’.

(Photo from AFP)

To endlessly ask why repressive regimes in Muslim-majority countries do not defend Muslims sustaining war, occupation, & genocide makes as little sense as asking the regimes of Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu-majority countries why they engage in war, occupation, & genocide.