(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/22/2023) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today said U.S. officials will be “complicit” in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza unless they intervene after the Israeli government announced that any Palestinian civilians who refuse to leave their homes in north Gaza could be identified as accomplices with a terrorist organization, and presumably targeted for killing by Israeli forces.
SEE: Israel issues ‘terrorist accomplice’ warning to Gaza residents as it urges them south (Reuters)
CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, also renewed its demand that the Biden administration call for an immediate ceasefire. Israeli strikes on Gaza have resulted in the death of 4,651 Palestinians, 40 percent of which were children. More than 14,245 others have been wounded, 70 percent of them children and women.
Following the initial Israeli order for those in North Gaza to flee their homes, 70 people — mostly women and children — were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit convoys of Palestinian evacuees heading south.
CAIR’s Minnesota chapter announced that an Israeli airstrike took the lives of 30 members of a family in that state.
[NOTE: More than 60,000 Americans have used CAIR’s action alert to contact their members of Congress and call for an end to the violence and the renewal of U.S.-led efforts to end the occupation. SEE: Urge Your Members of Congress to Address Root Cause of Mideast Violence (cair.com) ]
“By declaring that over a million Palestinian civilians, including women and children, who refuse to leave their homes in northern Gaza will be considered terror accomplices, and therefore presumably subject to extra-judicial killing, the Israeli government is clearly announcing to the international community that it plans to commit ethnic cleansing,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “If our nation’s leaders continue to give Benjamin Netanyahu the greenlight to carry out war crimes, and if we rush more weapons to help him do so, they will be complicit in his campaign of ethnic cleansing and even genocide.”
He noted that the forcible removal of a population is defined as a crime against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
BACKGROUNDER:
CAIR recently condemned a deadly Israeli airstrike targeting the Greek Orthodox Church campus in Gaza that killed 17 people.
Israel’s far-right defense minister has said that Israel is fighting “human animals” and that the entire Gaza population would be treated accordingly through a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip that block all supplies of electricity, food and fuel. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres he is “deeply distressed” by that blockade.
According to the Geneva Convention, states must allow the free passage of medical supplies, food, and other relief supplies for the benefit of a civilian population.
Collective punishment is also prohibited by Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions, which states: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states that it a war crime to: “Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully [sic] impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions.”
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La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com