This Palestinian boy named Arkan Thaer Mozher from Dhaishah refugee camp just south of Bethlehem in the West Bank was shot dead this morning as Israeli occupying soldiers stormed the camp. To what purpose other than destroying a new generation of Palestinian rebels against apartheid & genocide? May he Rest In Peace.
(Photo & info from Younes Arar)
A requiem: 28 Palestinian children, including an infant, have been killed by Israeli soldiers in the first seven months of 2018. Meanwhile, left Zionists are parsing how Israel is not an apartheid state whilst ignoring the genocide against Palestinians.
I’ve been locked out of my new place all morning by a broken lock & return to find the sky is still falling. The landlord, who is a spiffy dresser, was climbing in & out of windows to correct the situation. Not one of my ill-mannered dogs nipped at his snazzy but dusty pants. Hope you are all having a better day.
July 23rd
Palestinian citizen journalist Younes Arar reports that Limak Holding, a Turkish conglomerate with investments in construction, energy, cement, & tourism, has been contracted to construct the US embassy in occupied East Jerusalem for over $21.2 million. Will champion of the people Erdogan raise even a peep of protest? Or does he represent Turkish capitalism more than he does Palestinian justice?
In my political life, I’ve seen activists attempt to indoctrinate their children with progressive political ideas in the same way my conservative parents indoctrinated us with rightwing ideology. It always seemed artificial, robotic, & too controlling to me, if not also a violation of childhood. But under military occupation, as in Palestine & Kashmir, oppression is a lived, immediate reality for kids. It’s more than likely this boy is not just parroting what he has seen in adults but understands what he is chanting with the same passionate intensity.
“India isn’t casteist as long as
– a cobbler’s child wants to be a cobbler
– a manual scavenger’s child wants to be a manual scavenger
– a barber’s child wants to be a barber
– a fishworker’s child wants to be a fishworker
– a domestic worker’s child wants to be a domestic worker
– a hawkers child wants to be a hawker
But all caste hell breaks loose
– when a cobblers child wants to be a politician
– when a manual scavengers child wants to be a film star
– when a barber’s child wants to be a business magnate
– when a fishworker’s child wants to be an academic
– when a domestic worker’s child wants to be a novelist
– a hawkers child wants to be a doctor”
–Bobby Kunhu
Are we to take reports of incendiary kites, balloons, & condoms from Gaza seriously? Without photographic documentation, are we to believe Israeli reports that 6,000 acres have been destroyed, crops ruined & wildlife killed by flaming kites that whizzed by the multi-billion dollar Iron Dome system? Are we expected to go more ballistic over these kites than over Israeli snipers & bombers in Gaza? Get real!
Another everyday miracle: because of the expense, I’m moving my library & other belongings down to McAllen in shifts. On Wednesday, the movers phoned to say they would be at the storage facility in San Antonio in 30 minutes & I had to be there to receive it. From here, that’s a four-hour drive but I persuaded them to give me at least three hours to get there so they wouldn’t charge me $800 extra for storage. I had no time to check my tires, etc. & hit the road at 75-miles an hour all the way. That happened smoothly enough.
About an hour into the return trip, my car began billowing white smoke & shaking like a leaf over 60 mph. I slowed down, tried not to panic, & called on those many blessings I receive from Kashmiri friends. The car stopped smoking & trembling but I knew I was treading on thin ice & was very grateful for arriving home safely. Thursday, I took the car in for inspection & was told it smoked because the oil was over-filled & two threadbare tires were causing the shaking. The garage wouldn’t even allow me to leave their premises without putting on the temporary tire because they could imminently blow out. Thank you to my Kashmiri & other friends who keep me in their blessings.
July 22nd
What’s all this talk about Egypt brokering a ceasefire between Israel & Hamas? As if it were a two-sided war rather than a one-sided genocide! If Israel takes snipers & bombers against unarmed Palestinians, mosques, parks, schools, farms, hospitals, cuts off gas & electricity, won’t allow the critically ill out of Gaza for medical treatment, won’t allow foods, medicines, & other vital goods into Gaza, isn’t that more a genocide than war? If Hamas fires back at those snipers & bombers, isn’t that self-defense rather than war? Does Zionism get to rewrite the rubrics of colonialism & genocide?
The names & faces of children killed by Israel this year:
https://www.facebook.com/MiddleEastEye/videos/1818776281521085/?