Without any search & rescue operations by the Syrian army which is looting the camp, residents of Yarmouk refugee camp have found 15 bodies of Palestinian refugees buried under the rubble caused by months of Syrian bombing. Six of the victims were from one family, including children & their mother. The residents said many other bodies remain under the rubble because the Syrian government has not provided rescue teams or equipment. Palestinian activists sent a letter to political & human rights organizations urging them to intervene with Syrian authorities to provide equipment for exhumation of the bodies in the camp. The French newspaper Le Monde published a report calling Yarmouk a graveyard for Palestinian refugees.
(Photo from Yarmouk; information from Action Group for Palestinians of Syria)
This is the defense case of a Kashmiri man framed up & arrested in 2011 for an act of terrorism in India & now facing prosecution in a Delhi high court. He’s been in jail under inhumane conditions for seven years. Please like & share his Facebook wall so the Indian government knows his case is being internationally scrutinized & monitored. Otherwise they’ll fry him for a crime he didn’t commit.
Kashmiri friends: can you tell me if the term “Kashmiri Intifada” originated with activists or with Indian analysts? I distinctly recall reading it came from activists who recognized the affinities with Palestinian Intifada but cannot find that source. Indian analysts claim it but I cannot imagine they would use it unless they thought it would discredit your struggle.
The surreal world we live in: war criminals given Nobel Peace Prize; Saudi Arabia chairs UN human rights commission; Syria heads Conference on Disarmament (CD) despite use of barrel bombs & chemicals; US protests Syria heading CD despite intervention in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia. Beam us up Scotty.
“If the countries of the world from east to west accepted Assad, they will not impose it on us. We simply did not ask for permission when we shouted freedom.”
–Nedal Alamari, independent journalist working for Syrian revolution not a paid propagandist for the Assad regime
This photo was published on a pro-Assad website as a triumphal image of Syrian troops taking over Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp south of Damascus. Those who took the photo & posted it must not have noticed the hands raised out of the cabin of the tank. It wasn’t posted long before the cartoonist from Yarmouk known as “Hani Abbas” noticed the two hands & was horrified. The photo was deleted from the website after many began questioning the hands. There’s no information about who the body belonged to because, according to the Yarmouk News website, all information coming out of the camp is controlled by the Assad regime & its loyal factions.
Yarmouk is now referred to by activists as ‘Death Camp’ because a number of bodies have been found under the rubble even though there are no search & rescue operations. The brave & glorious Syrian army is engaged in widespread looting & the destruction of Palestinian homes.
(Photos from several Arab & Syrian websites including zamanalwsl.net)
How is the Palestinian struggle yoked to the Rohingya struggle? First by the sale of Israeli weapons to Burma & now by an educational agreement signed between Israel & Burma which gives both the right to review & edit how they are portrayed in each other’s textbooks. Excising genocide would be the first priority of both. It’s all of a piece. And so is solidarity.
All the socialists from my youth who became Zionists try to cover their retreat from principled politics by blithering about Hamas–as if the politics of Hamas mitigates the justice of the Palestinian struggle against colonialism, apartheid, genocide. After the massacre of unarmed Palestinian protesters, these same wretched souls are silent as a clam because you cannot justify that slaughter & still call yourself a socialist. They won’t criticize Israel & they refuse to defend Palestinians. They have a certain pompous image of who they are & see themselves as champions of the oppressed–though most haven’t done a damn thing for over 40 years. It’s likely they don’t watch Fox News but just as surely as Tucker Carlson, they are as racist & reactionary on Israel as American evangelicals or any ordinary redneck. You can’t buy into the rhetoric of the hateful war on terror & still call yourself progressive. That’s as true about Palestinians as it is about Syrians, Kashmiris, Rohingyas, Filipino Moros, Uyghurs. Amen.
