Great Return March, July 20, 2018: in the 112 days since the weekly Friday rallies began on March 30th, at least 138 Palestinians, including 19 children & youth, have been killed & over 15,000 injured. And still they march unarmed against Israeli snipers & bombers. Our profound respect for the Palestinian people in their intransigent struggle against apartheid & genocide.
Stand with Palestinians by honoring & promoting the economic boycott of Israel. Check every label to make sure its country of origin is not Israel or one of its illegal settlements.
The Israeli parliament just passed a law defining Israel as the “nation state of the Jewish people.” That is the political vision of Zionism, a rightwing movement that emerged out of a supremacist view of Jews rather than a commitment to freeing Jews from persecution. Rather than join with political forces opposing racism & colonialism, Zionist ideologues joined the forces of racism & social hatred to broker a compromise with colonialism at the expense of Palestinians. In that regard, Zionism has written its own obituary because the future of humanity depends on winning the long struggle against racism & colonialism & not in brokering compromises with it.
Some commentaries have called this law a symbolic act but it will lead to greater persecution of Palestinians in Israel & escalated violence & expropriations in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, & Gaza. We cannot be daunted by this act of provocation by the Knesset but must increase our efforts to build BDS which is having a powerful impact on Israel economically & politically.
These protesters are Israelis opposing the apartheid law with placards reading “This house belongs to all of us.”
A Kashmiri protester: youthful protesters are most often portrayed in media as antisocial, disaffected elements with little political depth or understanding. In truth, they are usually profoundly inspired by a hatred for oppression & a vision of freedom not mitigated by compromise. Their fearless disregard for the violence they face & the political odds against them is due to commitment, not to lack of understanding. That’s why they are the hope of the future–not just for Kashmiris but for all humanity with a vested interest in human freedom from oppression. We salute them.
(Photo tweeted by Kashmiri blogger Suddhan Sadaf Shareef)
It’s deplorable but not surprising that the Israeli education minister wants Israeli bombers to drop bombs on the heads of Palestinian kids flying kites. That’s actually Israeli policy. Even the UN reported that Israel directly targeted children in its 2014 seven-week bombing siege of Gaza. Of the 2,200 Palestinians killed, over 500 were children. Thousands were injured, some with permanent disabilities. That doesn’t count the tens of thousands traumatized, terrorized & made homeless. The most notorious incident was on July 9th, 2014 when Israeli bombers chased down four little boys playing soccer on the beach & killed them all.
Now that Israeli officials are emboldened enough to state their genocidal intentions against Palestinian kids, it is for so-called left Zionists to decide whether or not they want to be part of that. Or whether justice stands with Palestinian self-determination against Zionist terrorism & genocide.
(Photo is three of the four boys running from the bombers taken by journalist who happened to witness the incident)
This is a very important report by Fortify Rights, a human rights group which has stood steadfast with the Rohingya people & has not equivocated on the character of the genocide against them. It is a challenge to the official UN narrative that ARSA terrorism incited the Burmese government to extremes of violence & confirms what Rohingya activists & Maung Zarni have been saying from the beginning: that this genocide was planned by the Burmese genocidaires long in advance of any actions on ARSA’s part.
Younes Arar is a powerful Palestinian citizen journalist on social media & those who don’t already follow his reports might want to do so. This is his report on how Israel forces Palestinians to demolish their own homes to make room for Israeli settlers.
Yesterday Ather Zia posted a tribute to 70-year-old Gulam Hasan Malik, better known as Noor Khan, a well-known Kashmiri freedom fighter since his youth. He was arrested in January of this year & died Tuesday in a prison hospital. This is a photo of him chained to the bed as he lay dying. As Ather points out in this post, the indignity adheres entirely to Indian occupying forces & not to this man whose life was a testament to the dignity of resistance against oppression, occupation, colonialism. May he Rest In Peace as we honor his life.
This is 16-year-old Palestinian Nureddin Ebu Bekir after an Israeli explosive bullet went through his shoulder & neck at the Great Return March. He is now quadriplegic & has respiratory problems making it difficult to breath. This is part of Israel’s escalating campaign to disable or destroy Palestinian youth.
We are not helpless to defend Palestinians against genocide. Honoring & building the economic boycott of Israel is a powerful weapon along with demanding no military or other kind of aid to Israel.
A powerful statement by a coalition of Rohingya political groups from around the world on accountability for the Rohingya genocide. It’s so important because it takes the Rohingya struggle against genocide out of the netherworld of the pitiful thrust on it by media & self-serving human rights groups & places them squarely in the world of political combativeness on their own behalf. They are not to be pitied but respected & heard; their demands honored.
