Israeli Propaganda Finds a New Home in UMBC Commons

So UMBC, where I go to school, now features Israeli propaganda in the main corridor of its Commons (student union).

It takes the form of a display described by the organizers as follows:

"Inside Terrorism: The X-Ray Project is an art installation that exhibits x-rays of terror victims together with their medical accounts and personal stories; the x-rays come from two major Israeli hospitals. The exhibition personalizes and universalizes the issue of terrorism and urges the understanding that terrorism is not a legitimate tool, that it must be strongly condemned."

Funded by the David Project for Jewish Leadership and sponsored by Hillel, the project appears to exploit students' fascination with technology as well as their susceptibility to the corporate media version of events in Occupied Palestine.

A complete description of the project is here.

The David Project claims its mission is "to promote a fair and honest understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict."

However, the 5,050 Palestinian men, women and children killed by Israeli state terror in the last few years are not represented in the exhibit. Ditto for the 49,760 wounded, and the 10,4000 detained during the same time period (source: Palestinian State Information Service). Nor is there any mention of the fact that the Israeli victims were killed in an internationally recognized liberation struggle against occupation.

The net effect is a one-sided and racist portrayal of loss as unique to Israeli side, reminescent of the slavery-era treatment of black people, whose deaths were dismissed because they were thought to be "soul-less."

An excellent letter of protest written by a good friend to the Retriever Weekly (UMBC's student newspaper), may be seen here.

I just sent my own brief letter of protest to the Retriever, and encourage others to write as well.

For Freedom

Another work by Bobby Gene Garcia, Native American political prisoner, which has personal meaning for me, and also relates to the looming Febrary 27 habeas corpus hearing of Imam Jamil Al-Amin. I pray for Imam Jamil, that Allah give him renewed strength, and for the People, that they may not forget his legacy:
--------------------
Great Spirit, I chant for your help
once again
The strength of the four winds braced,
my mind.
My song set me free for I have
dared to dream
before of life-giving
freedom.
I'm free as an Eagle flying over
spacious prairies
that stilled the soul.
Unconstrained,
life-giving freedom
soaring under the
aspect of eternity.

Mountains and seas are no match
for my wings.
What matters if I fly alone?
Where freedom lies
there I find
home.

--Bobby Garcia
January 7, 1980

Mumit: Free at Age Fifty-Plus

A few days ago, I was messing around on the FBOP website. For once, it was good news: one of the brothers to whom I wrote regularly, at Lewisburg U.S.P., named Abdul Mumit (slave name: Lincoln Heard), was released some years ago.

Originally incarcerated for armored car heist(?), he was not a political prisoner in the sense of Sundiata Acoli, Geronimo Pratt, or the Sheikh. Like El-Hajj Malik Shabazz, he'd reverted to Islam while in prison. Because he stood up against the dehumanizing ("cruel and unusual") treatment accorded him and other prisoners, he was considered a "trouble-maker" and was repeatedly relocated from one prison to another. In between transfers, he was periodically thrown in the Hole. The relocations and the lockdowns created severe mental stress for Mumit, and he wrote me long letters expressing his fear that he would be murdered while in solitary. I did what little I could, writing letters of complaint to the prison bureaucracy, and letters of concern and support to him. He, like many Muslim inmates, felt isolated from the Ummah and craved Islamic literature, delighting when I sent him copies of New Trend (then in paper format), In the Shade of the Qur'an, the Burning Spear, and other literature.

I'd lost touch with him after my own (relatively insignificant) trials and tribulations, and so wasn't aware of his release. I exult in the thought that physically, he has survived, and is (technically) free. But, he is in his fifties now, robbed of his youth by the System, which continuously builds prisons for black youth, while closing libraries and cutting school budgets. I pray Allah help Mumit to survive the unemployment, disenfranchisment, and (more) racism which undoubtedly greeted him outside the gates of Lewisburg, and allow him to walk strong on the Sirat al-Mustaqeen.

Film Clip: "Victory for Palestine"

I felt inspired today, watching a film clip, forwarded to me by a returning Haji:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzygb6vf_6w&mode=related&search=

The song, said to be the Palestine Liberation Anthem, is by Tareq Jaber. Inshallah, justice will prevail.

They Took the Typewriter Today

The recent railroadings of Muslim and Black political prisoners, brought to mind a poem I first encountered years ago, as coordinator for the Leonard Peltier Support Group (LPSG) of Washington, DC. It is written by Bobby Gene Garcia, Native American political prisoner, who was found dead in his cell about a month after this writing:
-------------
The U.S. Government will kill me
in their Iron Houses
where they have killed many
Warriors before me
but I smile a smile
for I know
something.

Not an Army,
certainly not death,
no one can keep her away from me
while I bleed and die
and my blood covers
Mother Earth

My dreams
My hopes
Live forever,
In the People,
In the Village,
In the Children.

From They Took The Typewriter Today
--Bobby Gene Garcia
November 8, 1980