A very fine article by Wendy Pearlman, author of “We Crossed a Bridge & It Trembled”, which is a powerful compilation of Syrian testimony about life under the Assad dictatorship & the uprising against it.
https://theconversation.com/5-ways-the-syrian-revolution-continues-112802?
Some are objecting to criticisms of Jacinda Ardern as unreasonable & unable to distinguish her from white supremacist politicians. If she doesn’t want her impressive gestures of condolence to be misjudged as ‘performative solidarity’, then, as prime minister of New Zealand, she ought to pull NZ’s troops out of the Islamophobic ‘war on terror’, stop calling for censorship of our free speech on social media, & stop the NZ school from sending little girls home for wearing the hijab. Otherwise the dissonance is just too jarring & we can’t make fine distinctions over the sound of bullets massacring Muslims as terrorists.
Kashmiri novelist & journalist Mirza Waheed on the long history of Indian occupation forces using torture & extrajudicial executions in Kashmir:
“A young school teacher, Rizwan, was tortured to death in Kashmir. Now he is being blamed for his death. Torture in Kashmir is quite probably the most underreported story of the last thirty years. It’s systemic, endemic, and mostly unknown to the world.
If you really want to understand what goes on in Kashmir, look up “Kashmir’s Torture Trail”, Jezza Neumann’s award-winning documentary. You’ll be shocked, you’ll be disturbed, but you will have seen pictures of truth. Of course, not a single media house in India, newspapers and TV channels included, had the courage or journalistic integrity to show the documentary. In the documentary, you will see a man who survived forced cannibalism. He will show you his horrific scars and you must see them even if it spoils your day.
The Indian state has done unspeakable things to the Kashmiri body over the years. Just because a media, in full ideological accord with the state when it comes to Kashmir, won’t show it, does not mean it did not happen. Rizwan’s torture and murder is a consequence of the long and shameful silence over torture in Kashmir.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FdpaLuqOig&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0gltFTtByXaFFZ4YqS
“I’m not surprised that the state has filed an FIR against Kashmiri school teacher Rizwan who was killed in custody. I’m repulsed.”
–Mirza Waheed
(A FIR in India is a formal accusation of a crime committed by the young man murdered in police custody when it should be lodged against the state for his custodial torture & murder.)
On the horrific & chilling torture & murder of 28-year-old school teacher & political activist Rizwan Asad Pandit by Indian occupying forces in Kashmir:
According to the medical examiner’s report, “The blood loss in soft tissues due to multiple injuries was extensive internally, and this must have led to irreversible shock. There was no blunt injury or damage to the internal organs. He had cuts and injuries all over his body. He also had a haematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues) in his left arm and eye. While ruling out a heart attack, the official said a “roller” may have been applied over his legs, causing the veins and arteries to rupture.
The family has said that Rizwan was ‘murdered’ in custody and alleged that his body bore torture marks. “Rizwan’s left eye had turned black, and the left side of his face was swollen. There were severe injury marks on his thighs… cut marks and deep burn marks were visible on his thighs… There were stitches on his head,” said his brother Mubashir.”
“The “War on terror” was an excuse for modern day colonisation and occupation over black, brown and indigenous people. Muslims were the scapegoat to induce hate and fear and kill with no account. “Islamophobia” was carefully manufactured with full efforts from western media. And why is hate and racism against any group called “anti-something” but when it comes to Muslims its a phobia? We are the ones who are scared! Call the war on terror what it is, Anti Muslim Genocide.”
–Jaina Maina
Ahmad Jamal Manasrah is the fourth young Palestinian gunned down in cold blood in the West Bank by Israeli occupying forces just in the past 24 hours. He was not protesting but driving near Bethlehem. In a genocide, existence is a capital offense.
May he Rest In Peace. Build BDS & Palestinian solidarity in his memory.
(Photo & info from Younes Arar)
What’s with this calling John McCain a ‘decorated war hero’ just because Trump criticized him? He bombed the Vietnamese over & over again on 23 different bombing missions in one of the most despised & opposed wars in human history & he supported every US war after that. He called the Vietnamese ‘gooks’ while those in his generation who marched for civil rights & against that war called them brothers & sisters. He’s nobody’s hero. He’s a war criminal.
There’s a new book getting a lot of media attention about Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump’s “rise to power in the White House.” Nepotism is not a ‘rise to power’. They did not have to do all the unscrupulous things other operatives do since they were both born to corruption. Looked at another way, the poor things never stood a chance. Somewhere there’s a fickle finger of fate flipping the bird at them. After all, would you want Donald Trump in your family?
Repost from March 20 2017: This month marks the fourth year of Saudi-coalition carpet bombing of Yemen with support from the US & UK. It is the site of one of the glorious Arab Spring uprisings that saw women playing a leading role. We should pay tribute to their revolution & commit ourselves to rebuilding a principled antiwar movement because the current one has been corrupted by swallowing the rhetoric of the so-called ‘war on terror’ & has left the Yemenis to stand alone against the onslaught of bombers.
It’s been two years this month since the Saudi coalition of five monarchies & two military dictatorships began bombing democracy into Yemen, where in 2011 one of the most powerful Arab uprisings brought dictatorship to its knees–at least for a period.
It was a hopeful period for humanity, with uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, reverberations in Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, & elsewhere. The setback of the Arab Spring by the most repressive military forces & think tanks aligned against them has brought the cynics, but mostly the Muslim-haters, out of the woodwork to sneer that Arabs would be capable of democracy, especially in those countries where women wear the veil. Yemen & Bahrain were led by fully-veiled women standing against tear gas & tanks & they played a central role in Egypt. But smart-asses whose most courageous acts are cursing at authorities under their breath dare to disdain them?
The tragedy of the Arab Spring is the epic failure of international solidarity–& now the alignment of erstwhile progressives with Assad’s dictatorship & Russian bombing of civilians in Syria. It is not Arab activists who do not understand the character of democracy. It is mostly western progressives moving to the right led by Assad propagandists, retired CIA & FBI agents, & former US military officers who do not agree with uprisings against dictatorship or international solidarity–so profound is their hatred of Muslims & Jews.
The Arab uprisings have not said their struggles are over nor conceded defeat. This is not the time for triumphal or smug obituaries. Until then, we stand with them & look to them as leaders & teachers in the struggle of humanity for a world suitable for human beings to live & love in–a place to come of age & grow to old age in peace.
This women in Sana’a, Yemen is outside her tent shelter at a camp for those made homeless by Saudi-led, US & UK backed bombing.
US out of Yemen.
(Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA)