(WASHINGTON, DC – 1/7/2024) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Biden administration to condemn the far-right Israeli government’s latest targeted murder of journalists in Gaza.
An Israeli air strike on a car on Sunday killed two Palestinian journalists out reporting, including Hamza Al-Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera’s chief correspondent in Gaza Wael Al-Dahdouh. He and a group of journalists were traveling to an area designated as a “humanitarian zone” by the Israeli army, but which continues to be bombed.
Wael Al-Dahdouh’s wife Amna, his grandchild Adam, his other 15-year-old son Mahmoud and seven-year-old daughter Sham were killed by Israel in October. At that time, an Israeli journalist admitted Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family was intentionally targeted, saying Israel knows its targets and “today the target was the family of the Al Jazeera journalist.”
An investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists reports at least 77 journalists and media workers were among the almost 23,000 people killed by Israel in Gaza since the war began.
Antoine Bernard from Reporters Without Borders said the attack, “would qualify as another war crime against journalists for Gaza.” “It’s a massive slaughter and this has to stop.”
There is growing domestic and international outrage over Israel’s mass killing in Gaza – mostly women and children – including hundreds of UN workers, journalists and medical personnel. One monitoring group estimates that more than 90,000 people, about 4 percent of the population in Gaza, are dead, wounded or missing. More than 10 children lose limbs every day in Gaza.
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“Each day we call on the Biden administration to speak out against Israel’s war crimes in Gaza – this time the latest targeted killings of journalists – yet all we hear from administration officials are denials of the obvious genocide taking place and actions in support of that genocide, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing.
“The majority of Americans reject the Biden administration’s hypocritical and inhumane stance on the unfolding genocide in Gaza. It is time for President Biden to align his statements and actions with the will of the American people and call for an immediate ceasefire and a just and lasting peace.”
He noted that last year, CAIR welcomed an FBI investigation of the murder of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli military.
Yesterday, CAIR said the Biden administration must end its “complicity in the Netanyahu government’s genocide” after reports surfaced of Israeli desecration of Gaza cemeteries and civilian bodies scattered in the street.
On Friday, CAIR condemned the latest “Israeli war crimes of the day,” including reports of “torture camps” for detained Gazans, summary executions of Palestinian families and the deliberate targeting of healthcare workers.
The U.N. humanitarian chief is describing Gaza as “uninhabitable,” with almost 90 percent of the population displaced and facing Israeli-imposed starvation. Far-right Israeli government officials are openly calling for ethnic cleansing.
South Africa has brought a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ, or World Court) accusing Israel of genocide.]
[NOTE: More than 116,000 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]
Last week, CAIR commended former Biden administration official Tariq Habash for his “courageous and principled” decision to resign in protest of President Biden’s support for ongoing war crimes against civilians in Gaza.
Also last week, CAIR condemned White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby’s comments calling South Africa’s case at the UN’s top court accusing the Israeli government of genocide in Gaza “meritless.”
CAIR also condemned rumored plans to ship Palestinians expelled from Gaza by the far-right Israeli government’s genocidal actions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
OTHER ISRAELI WAR CRIMES:
CAIR called on the Biden administration to demand an end to violence by the far-right Israeli government and illegal Israeli settlers in the West bank following attacks on Christian clergy and the release of a U.N. report outlining the “rapid deterioration” of Palestinian rights in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier this week, CAIR condemned the far-right Israeli government’s killing of more than 100 journalists since Oct. 7.
CAIR also called for an international probe of online images showing hundreds of Palestinians civilians including the disabled, women, the elderly, and even a baby, most stripped to their underwear and paraded in a captured Gaza stadium.
CAIR condemned what it called the latest “Israeli war crimes of the day” after media reports that Israel killed at least 70 people in a strike on Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp and murdered a number of pregnant women.
CAIR called on Americans of all backgrounds to demand that the Biden administration act to “end the slaughter, starvation and ethnic cleansing” after reports that forces of the far-right Israeli government massacred 76 members of an extended family in Gaza, that Israeli-imposed famine is widespread and that bodies are decaying in the streets and are being dug up by Israeli bulldozers.
CAIR called on the Biden administration to stop sending what it called “genocide bombs” to the far-right Israeli government after the New York Times revealed that U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs were “routinely” used against Palestinian civilians in so-called “safe areas” in Gaza.
CAIR said the Biden administration must stop “justifying war crimes” the Israeli government has perpetrated against hospitals after an investigation by the Washington Post debunked claims by the Netanyahu government’s “evidence” that Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital had to be attacked because it was a military command center.
CAIR also called on the State Department and FBI to investigate the shooting and detention of a 13-year-old Palestinian-American boy by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
CAIR said Israel’s new ethnic cleansing order, the bulldozing of bodies in a Gaza cemetery and the forced starvation of Palestinian children are the latest “Israeli car crimes of the day.”
CAIR joined calls for a United Nations investigation of the latest “Israeli war crime of the day” – allegations that Israeli forces in Gaza carried our summary executions of unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members. Eyewitnesses are now coming forward to confirm these allegations.
CAIR condemned other “war crimes of the day,” including the reported mass killing of a Palestinian grandfather’s family in front of his eyes, vandalism of West Bank homes by Israeli forces, the deaths and alleged torture of Palestinian detainees, and more massacres in refugee camps and residential areas of Gaza.
CAIR condemned a deadly Israeli strike on a Gaza maternity hospital and other medical facilities, the killing of more than 100 people in a refugee camp and the killing of two Christians seeking shelter in a besieged church.
Pope Francis condemned Israel’s killing of two Christian women sheltering at a Catholic parish in Gaza, noting that “unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire.”
At least 110 people were killed in Israel’s bombing of Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
CAIR called for United Nations to investigate reports that Israeli forces in Gaza bulldozed medical tents with injured Palestinians inside, allegedly burying civilians alive and said that the Israeli military’s killing of three unarmed, shirtless Israelis waving a white flag is further proof that Israeli troops are “wantonly killing Palestinian civilians.”
CAIR said that the Israeli military’s killing of three unarmed, shirtless Israelis waving a white flag is further proof that Israeli troops are “wantonly killing Palestinian civilians.”
CAIR called on the Biden administration to respond to reports that Israel forces shot women, children and babies “execution-style” after they sought refuge in a school in Gaza.
CAIR condemned the attempted assassination of an Al Jazeera journalist (and the ultimate death of another) by Israeli forces, the desecration of Gaza cemeteries by Israeli troops in Gaza, and a deadly airstrike targeting a UN school in Gaza.
A new US intelligence assessment concluded that nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza have been unguided, also known as “dumb bombs.” Unguided munitions are typically less precise and can pose a greater threat to civilians.
CAIR condemned the Israeli government’s celebration of IDF troops who took over and desecrated a mosque in the West Bank as an “attack on Islam.”
CAIR said the far-right Israeli government’s controlled demolition of a U.N. school in Gaza is “further evidence of the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.”
Video posted online shows a man, reportedly with special needs, being detained by Israeli soldiers and then shot at point-blank range.
CAIR condemned an Israeli attack on another hospital in Gaza and said the Biden administration is actively participating in Israel’s “ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people.”
CAIR condemned another “war crime of the day” – the slaughter of at least 50 civilians in airstrikes on two UN-run schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
CAIR recently called on the Biden administration to address reporting that the U.S. supplied the Israeli government with white phosphorus used in attacks on civilian areas.
The Israeli government’s extremist leaders have declared that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, justified cutting off water, electricity and other basic necessities because Palestinians are ‘human animals,’ embraced an ancient biblical verse about the mass slaughter of an entire city from animals to infants, demanded a million residents of northern Gaza leave their homes or face death, and announced that the aim of the bombing in Gaza was destruction rather than accuracy.
CAIR said a new report by Heritage for Peace detailing Israel’s ongoing destruction of Palestinian cultural sites shows its desire to entirely “eliminate Palestinian existence.”
Washington, D.C., based CAIR questioned whether Western leaders even regard Palestinians as “human” after more than 700 women, children and men were massacred by Israel within just the last 24 hours.
CAIR condemned the “Israeli war crime of the day” after more than 100 men, women and children were killed in the bombing of residential buildings hosting displaced families in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
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.
Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational
Subscribe to CAIR’s Email List
https://action.cair.com/a/newsletters
Subscribe to CAIR’s Twitter Feed
http://twitter.com/cairnational
Subscribe to CAIR’s YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/cairtv
Follow CAIR on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/cair_national/
Donate to CAIR
https://action.cair.com/a/donate
Do you like reading CAIR press releases and taking part in our action alerts? You can help contribute to CAIR’s work of defending civil rights and empowering American Muslims across the country by making a one-time contribution or becoming a monthly donor. Supporters like you make CAIR’s advocacy work possible and defeating Islamophobia an achievable goal. Click here to donate to CAIR.
If you would like to join CAIR’s media list, please sign up here:
https://action.cair.com/a/newsletters — For more information, email: info@cair.com, CC ihooper@cair.com
END
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