Morning Comrades! We are going to start this week with a subject that I haven’t written about here, but definitely have my stakes in, mostly offline for a plethora of reasons. As some of you may have seen on the news these last few days, the state of Israel has attacked the Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday, during prayer on one of the last days of Ramadan. More than 200 people have been wounded in clashes between Palestinian worshippers and the Israeli police the Palestinian emergency service said early Saturday.
Palestinian medics and Israeli police said that at least 88 people were hospitalized. The Palestinian Red Crescent said many were hit in the face and in the eyes by rubber-coated bullets and shrapnel from stun grenades. According to the Israeli police, 17 officers were among those injured — about half of them needing treatment in hospital.
Al-Aqsa is Islam's third-holiest site. It is also a major holy site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. Tensions flared when Israeli police deployed at the compound as Muslims were performing evening prayers at the mosque during Ramadan. The Al-Aqsa mosque clashes marked the latest in a deadly day that saw Israeli authorities shoot and kill two Palestinians after three men opened fire on an Israeli police base in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier on Friday, Israeli forces said they arrested 15 Palestinians after clashes in annexed East Jerusalem. Tensions have heightened in recent days in Jerusalem as a legal battle with Israeli settlers put dozens of Palestinians at risk of eviction. Police said Palestinian protesters were setting off fireworks and throwing stones at officers and vehicles early on Friday in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Palestinian media reported that Israeli settlers and police had attacked a Palestinian vigil in Sheikh Jarrah early on Friday.
Located in the Arab eastern part of Jerusalem, the neighborhood has been the center of property disputes for decades. Both Israeli settlers and Palestinians claim ownership in Sheikh Jarrah. A Supreme Court decision in a property case involving four Palestinian families is expected next week. Those are some of facts behind what you have possibly been reading or hearing about.
Admittedly, I am biased here, for multiple reasons but most definitely having been to Palestine for work and experiencing multiple layers of this in person. Rest assured, any critique of the Israeli state is based on my interpretation of facts, experiences and stories I have been told, seen and experienced first hand and I am far than ok with any of it. I fully understand that any critique of the actions and policies implemented by Israel can ( and often are ) be quickly opposed as being anti-semitic and that is a discussion in and on itself, but to be clear, this is not the case here. I wholeheartedly oppose what the Israeli government is doing and my support and solidarity goes out to Palestine. As to the rest of that conversation, maybe a special report is in order. I shall think on it.
For some more background, watch this below.
New week and yes, another 3 hour long excursion into the depths of audio orgasms. This week is a deep dive into turkish psych rock, some rap, dance music, well my kind anyway and heaps of grand old and new post punk to help you get through this shit show.
When this bit of information hit last year I got extremely excited. Ever since visiting Chiapas 5 years ago I have been actively reading up on the EZLN and amazingly, the first delegations from have just arrived here in Europe.
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) has sought to mirror itself in various processes of struggle and resistance that are “below and to the left”, as they say. For this reason they have decided to travel beyond Mexico, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and against the backdrop of irregular or low-intensity warfare that is becoming more acute not only in Zapatista lands but across the Indigenous territories of Mexico and Latin America.
In a communiqué published on October 8, the Zapatistas emphasize that it is time for mutual listening and exploration with other resistances and rebellions. In the midst of the pandemic, which “demonstrated not only the vulnerabilities of human beings, but also the greed and stupidity of the national governments and their supposed opposition groups”, they announce that they will travel to countries at the other end of the continent.