Want to understand the attack on the synagogue in Jerusalem today?

First, understand that Jerusalem is occupied. The land is not “disputed” or “contested.” It is occupied.

Second, recognize that human rights violations continue – on a daily – basis against Palestinians, both in occupied Jerusalem and in the larger occupied West Bank (as well as within “Israel” and, of course, in Gaza).
-Homes are demolished, again and again. From 1999 to May 2014, almost 1,000 homes in occupied Jerusalem were demolished, leaving more than 2,028 Palestinians house-less.
-Children – children! – are detained and shot by the Israeli military. Example: Two days ago, Israeli military officials defended the attack of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy at the Kissufim checkpoint, after troops shot him in the neck for “loitering.” Israeli military confirm that shooting the child in the neck for “loitering” was consistent with the military protocol.
- People are lynched, shot, tortured, injured – on a regular basis.
- Land is continually stolen. Israel plans to build 500 new colonies – leading to the expulsion of 1,000 Palestinians from their homes and their lands!
- Lives regularly dehumanized. Attacks against Palestinians are dismissed by the international media, although they are institutionalized, systemic, and stem from the dominant power structure. (What about you? Did you raise a flag as to the regular killings of Palestinians?)
- Decent living standards deliberately denied. 75% of the Palestinian Jerusalemites live below the poverty line. Plus, since early June of this year, Palestinian neighborhoods have been regularly flooded with tear gas, skunk water, and drones.
- Residency rights for Palestinian Jerusalemites are denied (while any Jew can live there). On average, since 1967, 200 Palestinians have been denied their residency rights in Jerusalem. More than 14,309 Palestinians have been denied their residency rights since 1967. This is ethnic cleansing.
Apartheid strengthened. Institutionalized!

Third, recognize that these human rights violations are supported by the institutions within Israel – from military, to settlers, to media, to universities. Example: Israeli settlers lynch a Palestinian driver, Hassan Yousef Rammouni, 32, and father of two children, in occupied Jerusalem. Israeli authorities respond by prohibiting Hassan’s family from taking his body until they sign a paper declaring that Hassan committed suicide. Example: Israeli forces fail to probe 83% of settler violence cases — rights group. Example: Israeli settlers regularly “hit-and-run” Palestinians and no charged are imposed on them; all are regarded as mere “accidents.”

Fourth, refuse to decontextualize this act from the ongoing occupation. It CANNOT be separated.

Fifth, it honestly doesn’t matter if you personally support or condemn the attack, if you stand with liberation and justice, then stand with the occupied people’s right to resist, stand with the struggle, stand against occupation and apartheid.

Sixth, what happened today in the synagogue has a name: it is called armed resistance against occupation.

Seventh, still having difficulty? Well – did you support the French resistance against the Nazi occupation?

In literature, there is humanity.

In Palestinian literature, there is resistance.  And more so, there is existence.

Golda Meir stated that if the Palestinians were a people, then they would have literature.  No one now can claim that we do not have literature. Palestinian literature has been vibrant for hundreds of years, before the Nakba, and ever since. Just as the fighters resist with stones and weapons, Palestinian writers resist with their writings.

And in such existence, there is hope.

Wasafiri literary magazine‘s new issue is devoted to Palestinian literature, entitled Beautiful Resistance.  You can access it either on  Wasafiri site, or on this site, or, if your institution does not subscribe to either service, then you can also access it here, on this dropbox folder that I’ve created which has all the articles in the journal. 

Enjoy the articles, the fiction, the poetry, and the artwork.

We are not disposable.
Our lives our not disposable.

From those who work in the sweatshops around the world,
to those forced from the crippled public school system in US cities to the privatized, money-making, forced -labor prison system,
to the working class forced into a state of criminalized homelessness and poverty

We are alive. We are rising.
We are the many.
We resist. We are resisting.

There will come a day when rationality will reign,
when this irrationality of violence and poverty and racism will be dust,

and the sunlight of freedom and justice and equality will be supreme.

We are alive.

We resist.

We rejoice

Asfari Institute Open Public Speaking Workshop

It is Friday, and my promise is to only share good, uplifting news on Friday. This is one of the weeks when there is a bounty of good news.

Naturally, my thoughts go first to ‪Greece‬. Beautiful, inspirational, revolutionary victory of ‪Syriza‬. Greece – the place to go to *now,* to breath in the air of hope and powerful organizing. As my friend Nicola Cosmi said, “inspiration is good, imagination is better, action is best!” Here’s to action!

Check these links on how #Syriza organized:

(1) ‘Hope begins today': the inside story of Syriza’s rise to power (The Guardian)

 and

(2) this three-part expose by video journalist Matthew Cassel on AJ+

Inside Syriza: Part 1 – Tortured By Austerity 

Inside Syriza: Part 2 – Organized Radicals

and

Inside Syriza: Part 3 – Victory In Greece

I’m excited about this course that I’ve designed and that will be offered at AUB in the Fall as a graduate course: Political Ecology and Social Change: Focus on the Arab region.

Check it out, if you like New Course – Political ecology and social change – Syllabus

Any comments?

FYI – I’m touring #England from the 1st to the 4th of March – giving talks in

– Birmingham (https://www.facebook.com/groups/wmpsc/ ) ,

– London (https://www.facebook.com/events/449480855201962/) ,

– Sheffield (https://www.facebook.com/events/1659999887560637/) ,

– and Manchester (https://www.facebook.com/events/423939357768549/ )

See attachment. ‪

Rania Masri England Tour (word document)

Yes, we have a trash problem in Lebanon. Yes, we now have a serious trash problem in Beirut. (http://al-akhbar.com/node/238416)

[for pictures: click here]
So what should we do about it?

Groan and complain about the smell and the sight and “the coming of the plague” and just want it all to go away? Go away where?

– To be incinerated where it will be then transformed into poison and carcinogen? (See: http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/238317 about the dangers of incineration)

– Go to another landfill so it fills other people’s neighborhoods and upsets *their* lives and not ours because so long as we, in Beirut, don’t see and don’t smell it, then all is okay? Keep in mind that landfills are not designed properly, and thus impact environmental health and public health. Look at any of the 7 main landfills in Lebanon today – and you can see the dangers of these landfills. Case in point: look at Saida, where the UNDP was involved and the “management” of the landfill has resulted in further environmental damage!

– Throw more of our trash into the sea and then “reclaim” more land from the sea and create more economic profit for our rich real-estate millionaires and destroy more of our fragile Mediterranean Sea?

No. Let’s see it for what it is.

– a production of excess waste by ourselves, so a need to examine our own ways of life (Beirut and its neighborhoods produce up to 3000 tons/a day) (see: http://blogbaladi.com/five-ways-to-reduce-waste-until-the-garbage-crisis-is-over/ for ways to reduce our own personal garbage)

– a failure of government, truly. There was no surprise in this case; the government – every minister and every MP – knew of this situation. See this excellent interview with Bassam Kantar– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsshJKQGGQU&feature=youtu.be – as Kantar explains, the critical responsibility is to the Council of Development and Reconstruction (CDR). Seven governments have all failed

– an economic corruption where the alleged-management of our waste by Sukleen is arguably the most expensive (and still failed) waste management in the world. The collection and disposal of waste in Beirut and Mount Lebanon currently costs $130 per ton of garbage. This is almost three times the $38 per ton paid in Amman, Jordan and astronomically larger than the $20 per ton paid in Cairo. See this one example of their corruption, in collusion with CDR – http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/11479 and here is another very brief reporthttp://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/Jan-17/284408-landfill-crisis-thrusts-sukleen-in-limelight.ashx) while look at this problem that Sweden now has: (http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/11/26/sweden-runs-out-of-garbage-only-1-ends-up-in-landfills/)

– a failure to realize that these waste are not really waste. Approximately 60-70% of our waste is organic waste — in other words, beautifully rich for compost! Furthermore, as Ziad Abichaker has shown – every bit of our waste in Lebanon (no exception) can be re-used or recycled. (See:https://www.facebook.com/ziad.abichaker.7/media_set?set=a.1594781204108347.1073741834.100007294476672&type=3 – As Ziad Abi Chaker writes: “As #Beirutdrowns in #garbage we are using that same #recycledgarbage to mount a #vertical #Greenwall at #Mayrig#Gemmayze 36,660 #plastic bags were transformed into#Ecoboard and used to make this wall…#compost from#Slaughterhouse waste was added to the growing media for maximum fertility…600 evergreen plants will be used in just 10 sq.mt … As of tomorrow, part of the #garbage #Beirut is drowning under these days will be on display at #mayrig #Gemmayze transformed into a fertile #Greenwall … that garbage making the city awful today will make it #green one day very very soon…and that’s a promise… #Recycling#sustainability #vertical #garden #urban”

We have solutions available, wonderful solutions that would transform our waste into gardens, and lead to ZERO landfills and ZERO incinerators. Let’s push for that route.

In the meantime, see this link for recycling centers:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152843422171582&set=pcb.10152843422436582&type=1&theater

FYI,

here is the link of an interview Said Fattouh of Arab Voices conducted with me yesterday

The direct link to the audio is http://www.arabvoices.net/archives/kpft_150729_190000av.mp3.  (Interview begins at 16.07)

Previous appearances on the show:

July 17, 2013:  http://www.arabvoices.net/archives/kpft_130717_190000av.mp3

August 20, 2003:  http://www.arabvoices.net/archives/arab_voices-082003_220000.mp3

Here is the link of my interview with People United from July 28, 2015 and broadcast on July 31, 2015:

• * August 19, 2015: “Ferguson to Palestine: Linking Liberation Struggles” Rania Masri and Ajamu Dillahunt, Jr.  in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• September 18, 2015: Radio interview with Cape Town radio station on Racism in the US and Zionism

The flag is not sufficient. I want to celebrate Palestinian liberation, and not the hoisting of a flag over the UN (which accepted the division of my home) and not the empty statements of a “Palestinian state” by those who refuse to take action to liberate but find it sufficient to call a broken neighborhood “Palestine”.

A flag, and talk of a Palestinian State, while occupation and apartheid and ethnic cleansing continue – makes a farce of the flag. Perhaps that makes it all the more suitable for Abbas to be there — a man whose presidency expired years ago, and a man who regards security coordination with the enemy to be acceptable behavior. 

#TPP – bad news for the world.

Trade ministers from 12 countries announced the largest trade-liberalizing pact in a generation yesterday. The TPP was pushed by the United States and now has been signed by the 11 other countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Why is the TPP so bad?

Check out these 5 articles – to get a taste

(1) Why the TPP is bad for Developing countries by Foreign Policy

(2) Thanks to WikiLeaks, we see just how bad TPP trade deal is for regular people 

(3) The TPP Could Have Disastrous Results For The Climate, Environmental Groups Warn –

(4) Here’s what Public Citizen says

(5) And its impact on health care

Someone tell me again how Obama is a Democrat? NAFTA was by Clinton and TPP by Obama. What does this leave for Republicans?

After the Thursday terrorist attack on Beirut, I was quoted by the Institute for Public Accuracy:

 “We are not numbers. I say this as I remember the 43 people killed and the 239 wounded in this terrorist attack on a neighborhood. We are not numbers.

“Among dead and injured are books/backpacks belonging to schoolchildren. …

I was then interviewed by Flashpoints (radio station in California).

Here is that interview: https://kboo.fm/raniamasrionthedeadlybombinginbeirut  (Note: I mistakenly stated that there 3-4 attackers; the next day, we discovered that there were 2. I also mistakenly stated that the terrorist bombing happened at 7 pm local time, while it was actually at 6 pm local time.)

The next day, Real News interviewed Vijay Prashad and me, to discuss: “The Media’s Skewed Portrayal of the Bombing in Beirut. Rania Masri and Vijay Prashad say the western media’s reporting on the ISIS bombing in Lebanon is deeply racist and accepts the ISIS narrative by describing the southern Beirut neighborhood as a “Hezbollah bastion”

Here is the link that interview

Where are we going now? French President Hollande‬ has called for “a pitiless war.” How many more thousands and thousands of people will be killed and killed invisibly? Their lives and deaths will not reach the western press, no condemnations will be issued when they are killed.

Vijay Prashad writes: “Macho language about “pitiless war” defines the contours of leadership these days. Little else is on offer. It is red meat to our emotions.”

Is there another way? Yes. there is.

Read Vijay’s excellent article: We are in pitiless times.  Read it once and then twice. Then share it.  It is that necessary.

—

What about the seen and unseen bodies?

“In ‪#‎Paris‬ there are detailed descriptions of the music venue and sports stadium where the violence took place. In ‪#‎Beirut‬ there is little or no mention of the marketplace, mosque or school that bore the brunt of the explosions.
…Not only do these narratives feed into rightist, xenophobic or Islamophobic political views, they also colour the perceptions of readers and editors at mainstream publications. Take an analysis piece that appeared in the The Huffington Post less than 24 hours after the Beirut attacks which flatly suggested that the tragedy was to be expected. “It was a matter of time before residents of Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah-controlled suburb of Beirut Lebanon, were bombed again,” a fellow at a Washington think-tank wrote. Can one imagine an article a day after the Paris bombings claiming it was just “a matter of time” before Europeans were massacred?”

Read Habib Battah’s article for more: Analysis: Just as innocent – comparing Beirut and Paris

Whose lives are unseen? In the midst of these terrorist attacks, there are other terrorist attacks that have gone (almost) unseen…

• 41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes – the facts on the ground.

And, ISIS – where did it come from?

“The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place. … A year into the Syrian rebellion, the US and its allies weren’t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of “Islamic state” – despite the “grave danger” to Iraq’s unity – as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria.That doesn’t mean the US created Isis, of course, though some of its Gulf allies certainly played a role in it – as the US vice-president, Joe Biden, acknowledged last year. But there was no al-Qaida in Iraq until the US and Britain invaded. And the US has certainly exploited the existence of Isis against other forces in the region as part of a wider drive to maintain western control.”

Read the article in full:  Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

All the while, all the while … Palestine

“Among the sympathies pouring into Paris from all over the world are messages from the Palestinians of Gaza, for whom such terror has been a regular occurrence for decades—particularly for the past six years, during which they have suffered through three major assaults by Israel. Despite their own pain, which is frequently forgotten in the press of other crises, they are uniquely positioned to sympathize with the trauma of others.-‘

See more at: http://wearenotnumbers.org/home/Story/124

Here is an interview that KBOO – Oregan community radio – did with me late last night, edited it, and released it this morning.

http://kboo.fm/newsindepthon111715 

or

kboo_episode.2.151117.1745.69083.mp3

I discussed the Western media’s response to the terrorist attacks in Lebanon and France, and the absence of coverage of the attacks in Iraq.  I talked about US foreign policy, US domestic policy, and Black Lives Matter, Howard Zinn, building an alternative media, and the need for a real democracy in the US.

Abu Kamel was the last survivor of al Safsaf Massacre; he passed away yesterday in Ein el Helweh camp in Lebanon after carrying his pain for 67 years. However, he kept telling his story to the last breath, but unfortunately it was limited to those who visited him in the camp.

In 2003, Mahmoud Zeidan interviewed Abed Kasem Younis, Abu Kamel (born in Sufsaf in 1918) about al Sufsaf massacre. It was a unique interview because Abu Kamel was one of the two survivors who understood Hebrew and heard the Jewish gangs as they were killing the victims. His below detailed account amounts to filming. He was coming from the windmill unaware that the Zionists occupied his village:

“I was at the door when my mother, my wife and two children Monira and Kamel jumped to receive me. I’d brought them some candies. The Jewish soldiers began with me, so I gave the candies to my kids and said, “Take it; it’s the last donation from your father.”… my mother tried to hold my hand, but a Jewish fighter pulled me and pulled around 17 young men most of whom were less than 17 years old.

The Jewish fighters turned our faces back to a wall; we started to hide against each other. One young man hid his head under my arm. My brother in law, who was 35 years old started to beg the Jewish soldier, but the soldier said to him in Arabic: “ Turn your head you donkey”. Then they shot us. I swear the wall shook above our heads from the bullets.

When they shot, I was injured in my arm. Then it penetrated to the neck of the guy who was hiding under my arm. I saw his jaw spilling in my eyes. Then I got another bullet on my chest and one in the back that burnt my jacket, so I fell down; when I fell, the young guy who was hiding under my arm fell over my head, and all his blood started to pour on me. Add to this blood from son of Khaled Askoul and blood from someone called Kassem Hamad. I felt as if I had been in pool of blood. Suddenly an old woman appeared to check on us, and she stood over my head; so I told her that I was still alive; then I asked her to go and tell my mother that I was still alive, but I asked her not to come as I was worried that the Jewish soldiers might return; and unfortunately, two Jewish soldiers came fully equipped with arms and other needs.

One of them stood over my head and one was 2 meters far. He told him in Hebrew there’s someone who is still alive, kill him.

I thought either I or Khaled Askoul would be killed. However, I could see what they were doing under the Kofiyeh that was smeared with blood and covered my face. The sight was dark and blurred because of the kofiyeh and the blood. The jewish soldier called his friend and told him, “come and kill him; he posted his stin (machine gun) on his knee and shot two bullets that penetrated the young man’s waist and hit me in my chest. The young man didn’t bleed as he had lost all his blood. He bit his lip and died. The Salvation Army bombed the area; then the jewish soldiers ran away, so I held my arm and walked where women and children were hiding.”

This is how Abu Kamel Younis survived the Safsaf massacre in which 80 victims were killed on 29 October 1948. Abu Kamel kept on tediously telling his story alone to uncover the terrorist face of Zionists. He died today.

• interviewed and transcribed by Mahmoud Zeidan

“For well over a year the Turkish Government has been secretly supporting ISIS, but the US and NATO turn a blind eye to this because of Turkey’s geopolitical position. ISIS as an armed force – though not ISIS terrorists outside the Mid East region – would most likely have been defeated long ago had it not been for Turkey’s support.”

Read the article in full here: ISIS survives largely because Turkey allows it to: the evidence – and there is plenty of referenced evidence included there

From the article:

 1. Turkey Provides Military Equipment to ISIS

2. Turkey Provided Transport and Logistical Assistance to ISIS Fighters

3. Turkey Provided Training to ISIS Fighters

4. Turkey Offers Medical Care to ISIS Fighters

5. Turkey Supports ISIS Financially Through Purchase of Oil

6. Turkey Assists ISIS Recruitment

7. Turkish Forces Are Fighting Alongside ISIS

8. Turkey Helped ISIS in Battle for Kobani

9. Turkey and ISIS Share a Worldview

Two points to discuss about the US and ISIS

—  Intention?

Someone close to the US Administration has finally  confirmed what we guessed all along to be the US strategy: split the region into smaller states according to their sectarian identity.John Bolton – former US ambassador to the UN – writes, “To Defeat ISIS, Create a Sunni State.” In typical imperialist fashion, absence from the discourse is the voice of the indigenous population — the Syrians and Iraqis. We have, rather, more voices of empire discussing how to divide and (further) rule other people’s lands, cities, and nation.

Too conspiratorial to claim this is/was the US intention?  Let’s remember this document, as discussed by Seamus Milne article in the Guardian here – under the title ‘Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq’!

Excerpt: A recently declassified secret US intelligence report, written in August 2012, which uncannily predicts – and effectively welcomes – the prospect of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and an al-Qaida-controlled Islamic state in Syria and Iraq. In stark contrast to western claims at the time, the Defense Intelligence Agency document identifies al-Qaida in Iraq (which became Isis) and fellow Salafists as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” – and states that “western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey” were supporting the opposition’s efforts to take control of eastern Syria. …A year into the Syrian rebellion, the US and its allies weren’t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to support the creation of some sort of “Islamic state” – despite the “grave danger” to Iraq’s unity – to weaken Syria

— Discourse?

A former CIA intelligence officer turned blogger Michael Scheuer said the U.S. should bomb even hospitals and universities  Isn’t that the ethic of #ISIS? Remember – ISIS wanted to bomb a hospital in Beirut and then opted to bomb a marketplace instead (not because they don’t want to harm patients but because it was easier). Isn’t that the ethnic of Zionism?Another US pundit learning from the Israelis: Americans shouldn’t care about non-American civilians killed, he says

Of course this is the usual corporate-media. No surprise to discover that the US Media is Fueling War Fervor, Xenophobia In 24/7 Cycle

Reminder: – Who is bombing Syria?

From the Intercept: “A coalition made up of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates began striking ISIS targets in Syria in September 2014, with the U.S. military taking the overwhelming lead in the bombings. As of this month, U.S. warplanes had delivered roughly 94 percent of the nearly 3,000 coalition airstrikes in Syria, according to coalition figures. While the coalition has maintained that it operates the most precise weapons systems on the planet, evidence that its strikes have caused civilian casualties has steadily mounted — with some estimates indicating as many as 354 civilians allegedly killed in the coalition’s first year of operations. Still, despite launching thousands of airstrikes in Syria since its campaign began, the U.S. Central Command, as of September, had admitted to just one “likely” incident of a civilian casualty caused by a coalition strike. France announced it would join the coalition air campaign in Syria a year after the Americans did, in mid-September 2015. … The Russians have been bombing Raqqa as well”

And let’s not forget the role of Turkey

But wait – did the US actually claim “precise weapons systems”… like those drones?

Really? Drones precise?

“U.S. DRONE OPERATORS are inflicting heavy civilian casualties and have developed an institutional culture callous to the death of children and other innocents, four former operators said at a press briefing in New York”

• Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.
  • Read their open letter to Obama here – https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2515596-final-drone-letter.html
• The drone program killed people based on unreliable intelligence, the vast majority of people killed in a multi-year Afghanistan campaign were not the intended targets, and the military by default labeled non-targets killed in the campaign as enemies rather than civilians. Up to 90% of the people killed in drone strikes may be unintended, with the disparity glossed over by the recording of unknown victims as “enemies killed in action” Read more here: https://theintercept.com/drone-papers
• The number of lethal airstrikes has ballooned under Obama’s watch. The Pentagon has plans further to increase the number of daily drone flights by 50% by 2019.- 41 men targeted – 1,147 people killed!  In Pakistan, in one attack, For the death of a man whom practically no American can name, the US killed 128 people, 13 of them children, none of whom it meant to harm. Some 24 men specifically targeted in Pakistan resulted in the death of 874 people.  In Yemen, 17 named men were targeted multiple times. Strikes on them killed 273 people, at least seven of them children. At least four of the targets are still alive.

So, does the US really want to destroy ISIS? Does the US really want to defeat terrorism?