The legacy of Genocide Joe Biden

 From artist Laura Harling: 

The Legacy: Joe Biden displays his legacy 

while Palestinian children beg for food.  

 

Link to Laura Harling's excellent gallery, here.

kufiyas post-October 7

 Since October 7 there has been a steady stream of reports about the kufiya: their growing use and visibility, and, in response, efforts to squelch or silence or even arrest people for wearing them. I'm too overwhelmed to keep a full accounting, but occasionally I will try to post about the phenomenon. Here's one incident. Layla is a grad student in Social Work at Columbia, very active on Twitter/X and elsewhere.

Palestinian health institutions under attack: 1978, Lebanon.

Interesting film, "Palestine Red Crescent Society" (1979, dir. Monica Maurer and Samir Nimer). Filmed in 1978 in Lebanon, it examines the development and the work of the PRCS. Its work encompasses not just pre-natal health and "normal" medical functions, but also the treatment of the wounded and the rehabilitation clinics that handle those mutilated or left handicap by periodic Israeli attacks and the Lebanese Civil War. Attacks on Palestinian health infrastructure did not start in Gaza in 2023.... 

#kufiyaspotting again

I'm gonna try to get back to logging kufiya related incidents. Kufiya wearing has really blown up since October 7 (no pun intended), and I've been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material. But here is a start. Did this really happen? Who knows, but it the report is indicative of a wider trend.

Americans in Lebanon march for Palestinian right of return, April 1973

This is an AP wire photo that I purchased off of ebay a couple years back. I don't know whether the photo ever showed up in any news report on the event. A group of Americans, I don't think belonging to any particular organization, put on this event, a two-day march to Sidon. The following year they organized another march, from Sidon to Tyre. (That's me in the middle, with the headband.) I was too involved in marriage preparations to go. The following spring, 1975, no march was organized, it was the early days of the civil war. Two things I notice here: (1) the woman next to me (whose name I forget) is wearing a kufiya, reminding me that expats in Beirut would do this in the early 70s, and (2) I'm carrying a plastic bag from the Rebeiz record store, one of the two best record stores in Beirut at the time. It should be noted that the march proceeded just a few days after Israeli special forces entered West Beirut and assassinated three PLO officials: Muhammad al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan, and Kamal Nasser.

#kufiyaspotting: Esperanza Spalding at the Grammys (+ watermelons: Aja Monet + artists4ceasefire: boygenius and Annie Lennox)

At the Grammys last night, jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding (double nominee)

showed her support for the Palestinians by donning a kufiya.

Also: poet Aja Monet, up for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, carried a watermelon clutch.

and...boygenius wore arists4ceasefire pins.

And finally, Annie Lennox gave a shoutout for #ceasefire