Retired nurse & nursing lecturer, pacifist, g’pa, socialist, has nursing ethography PhD in Islamophobia so is now Dr Dave!
London, England
Joined April 2017
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"...lives changed..."
Today's Guardian headlines sum up what's been wrong with years of the paper's coverage of Gaza.
"Neither war nor peace". That's a reference to the non-existent ceasefire. But actually, it's just another example of the Guardian refusing to state the obvious: that what's happening to Gaza is not war or peace, it's a slow-motion genocide – the ultimate crime.
Palestinians in Gaza are not just living "amid disease, despair and ruins" – as if they are unfortunate victims of an earthquake. They are living in an ever-shrinking concentration camp, subjected to continuing drone attacks and air strikes, and still denied the essentials of life.
It is Israel actively doing all this to the people of Gaza. But once again Israel is completely absent from the headline.
In the subhead, notice how the "change" in Palestinians' lives is still being attributed – three years on – to Hamas' single-day attack, not to Israeli leaders' endlessly repeated genocidal lust. The Hamas attack wasn't the cause of the genocide: it was the pretext Israel needed to carry out a long-held plan.
And how does the Guardian refer to Israel's genocidal three-year rampage that's killed and maimed many 100,000s of Palestinians? It's simply a "subsequent Israeli offensive".
One of the reasons for all this blandness in western media coverage is that ensures Israel doesn't complain, it doesn't accuse outlets of being antisemitic.
Blandness in the face of a genocide is another term for moral cowardice.
“The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
Because, “People create their own history, but they do not do it in conditions they pick themselves. They work with the past that is already handed down to them.”
Dave retweeted
UNANIMOUSLY NOT GUILTY: A major victory for free speech and solidarity at the Old Bailey.
Student activist Sarah (of the SOAS 2) has been fully acquitted by a jury after facing prosecution for speaking in support of Palestine.
Speaking outside court, Sarah described the verdict as an incredible boost of morale for the entire movement:
“My case has proved that we have the right to defend the Palestinian people... and that what we’ve shown here today is that speaking about Palestinian resistance is not the same as supporting terrorism. When you stick to your principles, the people united will never be defeated.”
The trial saw prosecutors download entire phone records and scrutinize private messages between friends and family, yet failed to produce evidence of illegality—Sarah never once expressed support for Hamas. Instead, this case exposed the ongoing efforts to criminalize dissent, surveil young activists, and silence legitimate advocacy under international law.
Today’s verdict sends a resounding message: solidarity is not a crime.
#FreeSpeech #SOAS2 #OldBailey #PalestineSolidarity #RightToResist
📽️ @financialeyes Ranjan Balakumaran
Ditto, Arun Kundnani's, 'The Muslims are Coming! : Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror' (2015).
Clever, scholarly, evidence-backed yet a very easy, compelling read.
Buy it in hardback.
Arun Kundnani (see today's Guardian)has written much and all is excellent.
But 'What Is Antiracism?: And Why It Means Anticapitalism' is a book worth buying in hardback. A rare book that is scholarly, fantastically referenced and yet very, very readable.
A book to return to.
Excellent piece by Arun Kundnani, author of the particularly brilliant, 'What Is Antiracism?: And Why It Means Anticapitalism' & 'The Muslims are Coming! : Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror':
theguardian.com/commentisfre…
Am reading a book that notes how standard narratives of modernity in the West ignore how colonialism, empire, & slavery enabled the Renaissance, the US, French & industrial revolutions.
Many key lacunae to be addressed.
I started by having to look up ‘lacunae’.
‘Ignorance is generally considered a fault. We are accustomed to regard it as a negative quantity. Let us observe how the magic wand of the philistine as critic converts a minus quantity of intelligence into a plus quantity of morality.´
Islamophobia.
The media can’t barely bring itself to utter the word, never mind cover the attack.
“Terrorism”: a politicised word.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j2…
Dave retweeted
How many Fidel Castros the world could have had if imperialism had not cut them down in their prime. Rest in power Fidel, Che, Amilcar Cabral, Maurice Bishop, Thomas Sankara, Fred Hampton, Walter Rodney, Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, Samora Machel. And all our fallen comrades
The rampant, violent Islamophobia in the UK is of no interest to the state or media.
The man accused of hitting a Muslim woman wearing a hijab with his car has been named as 31-year-old Brennan Mongan, from Sewell Road in Abbey Wood, southeast London.
Police said he fled to Scotland before being located, arrested and charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent, dangerous driving, criminal damage to a motor vehicle, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance.
He appeared at Woolwich Crown Court via video link, but the hearing had to be adjourned because he was unable to secure legal representation.
He remains on remand, and another hearing has been scheduled for 18 June.
