A Rohingya friend of mine has made a dramatic change to better understand the freedom struggle & how he can best serve it. He could really use all your prayers & blessings. It’s a very tough struggle against insuperable odds but not a hopeless one with activists like him & support from thousands of us. Please keep him in your prayers & hearts.

Sometimes it gets to me that so few progressive or socialist journals write about the freedom struggle in Kashmir. Educating & building a solidarity movement should be a political priority. But then I remember that most of them wrote almost nothing about Palestinians, BDS, or the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011-2013.

At one point, I told a fellow from the grouplet Socialist Action that their lack of reporting about Palestinians & failure to build BDS was the sign of significant political problems within the organization. It could even be called a betrayal. Jeff Mackler, the guru of the SA cult, emailed me a single, not particularly informed article he had written on Palestine to show me I was wrong.

It should come as no surprise that Mackler & SA are now leading figures in the Hands Off Syria Coalition, reducing themselves to apologetics for Assad against charges of using sarin gas to bomb civilians. That kind of political corruption has explanations that should be investigated because most other socialist groups share their stinking decline into alliance with fascists. Whither goest such a left? Eventually into oblivion. And not fast enough.

You know those sophisticated, secular feminists who think US bombers will liberate Muslim women from the veil & bring those patriarchal Muslim men to their knees? The worst of them should be told to shove it where the sun don’t shine; those who racism has not corrupted beyond redemption should be told to look to the women of Palestine, Kashmir, & the Arab uprisings to see what modern, revolutionary feminism looks like.

(Photo of Palestinian woman taking on Israeli soldiers from Twitter)

Remember how Elie Wiesel, the Zionist ideologue, published full page ads during the 2014 Israeli carpet bombing siege of Gaza claiming Palestinians used their children as human shields? Remember when Gal Gadot, the Israeli actress playing Wonder Woman & an ardent Zionist, supported that bombing siege claiming Palestinians used their women & children as human shields?

Wiesel has croaked but Gadot should be asked to explain this photo of Israeli soldiers using a blindfolded Palestinian as a human shield–& not for the first time but as a practice of the occupation.

Long live Palestinian Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Palestine. Support BDS.

(Photo tweeted by Occupied Palestine)

Posted in respect to the toughness & intransigence of Palestinians after 69 years of struggle against colonialism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, carpet bombing, occupation, & being vilified as terrorists, without surrendering to superior military force.

Long live Palestinian Intifada. Palestine will be free.

(Photo from Twitter)

Max Blumenthal who tried to build his career off the backs of Palestinians, is now chasing honoraria on Assadist circuits & fame on Fox News defending Putin. Give him a few years, he’ll be doing Infowars, Global Research, Consortium News, Counterpunch, & will be a regular on Fox News. Tucker Carlson talks the same game. His trajectory is not good but it is a well-trodden path shysters before him have taken.

Now pitiful Max has tweeted objections to The Syria Campaign raising funds for medical facilities in Idlib, Syria. Last August, an MSF/Doctors Without Borders hospital in Idlib was completely destroyed by Syrian or Russian bombers & in April of this year they destroyed two more hospitals in the region. A principle of international law is the neutrality of medical facilities, including hospitals, clinics, field hospitals, medical personnel, & ambulances–although that is flouted habitually by US forces in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, & elsewhere, by Israel in Gaza, & by Syria, Russia & the US in Syria.

If smug & smarmy Max has objections to providing medical care to the 165,000 civilians being bombed to smithereens within the Idlib district, he should take it up the Geneva Conventions & see if he can persuade them to legitimize barbarism. Otherwise he should stfu.

(Photo of the contemptible parvenu)

Mehbooba Mufti, the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir & a flunky for India, called on Modi to “replace Azadi {freedom} with something better.” Not content to leave idiocy alone, she went on to groveling: “I feel Modiji is the man of the moment & he has the potential to rise & become the man of history. His leadership is an asset which needs to be harnessed…& take Kashmir out of this present mess.”

Imagine the depths of political corruption to call on a nationalist rightwing politician implicated in pogroms against Muslims, now orchestrating the rightwing shift in Indian politics, to replace the Kashmiri call for freedom with something better. He has replaced azadi with the occupation of 700,000 troops.

Fox News progressives (those who claim they’re revolutionaries but talk like Tucker Carlson) refuse to criticize Trump unless we go back to George Washington & itemize complaints against each of the other 44 presidents. That’s just a cagey way of supporting Trump.

Now he has come out publicly encouraging police brutality against those arrested for suspicion of a crime. And that in a climate when police violence against the Black community is a major issue. Police departments came out opposing his statement because it discredits them, encourages thuggish, illegal misconduct, & makes them no better than criminals. If you will not condemn this kind of politics from Trump, you side with racism, gestapo politics, injustice. Don’t call yourself a champion of democracy. Don’t make a bigger ass of yourself.

After being publicly humiliated, both Reince Priebus & Jeff Sessions groveled & sniveled their respect & loyalty to Trump. Despite a stinking elitism, they have no sense of dignity or worth in service to one of the most detestable & stupid figures in US political history. This is abnormal psychology.

Most minimum wage workers wouldn’t put up with that crap because they have a sense of self-respect, not just before power but especially before power.

Aggression against Palestinian religious freedom focuses on the Al Aqsa mosque compound but that is by no means the only religious institution coming under Israeli attack. The extremes of such violence are in Gaza where just during the seven-week carpet bombing siege in July-August 2014 Israel destroyed 64 mosques & damaged 150 others. Ten Muslim cemeteries were also bombed out.

In the West Bank, such incidents are a constant where settlers vandalize Christian churches & mosques with graffiti like “Muhammad is a pig,” enter mosques to vandalize & torch holy books & prayer rugs, & there are cases when they outright torched mosques beyond repair with complete impunity from Israeli authorities. There are also Israeli attempts to claim Muslim holy sites like the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron by inventing prior religious & historic claims for Judaism.

That same situation prevails in Kashmir where most media attention focuses on Jamia Masjid in Srinagar but mosques & religious institutions in other parts of Kashmir have also been under military siege for decades. Since there are no settlers yet in Kashmir, India uses its troops to enter mosques & vandalize, ransack, desecrate the premises. Worshippers have been beaten & killed, imams have been arrested & killed, mosques have been blown up, barraged with mortars, rifle grenades, open fire, & torched to the ground.

All this to strike at the heart of a culture by denying people the freedom to worship according to their traditions & deepest commitments. This photo is from July 14th in the Reshi Bazar area of Anantnag district in Kashmir when occupying forces attacked worshippers after Friday prayers. One young man sustained critical injuries & at least 14 others were arrested during the protests. There is no report on what happened to those young men–whether they were released or held in custody for torture or incarceration under administrative detention without any form of due process.

Freedom of religion is a fundamental democratic right. Defending it in Palestine & Kashmir is central to the struggle against occupation & for self-determination.

Long live Palestinian & Kashmiri Intifada.

(Photo by Aasif Shafi)