The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today a decision by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to add Israel’s military to a global list of offenders who have committed violations against children.
Israel was reportedly notified of the decision on Friday. The list will be submitted to the U.N. Security Council on June 14. Guterres’ annual report to the Security Council covers the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access and targeting of schools and hospitals. [See last year’s report.]
Most of the more than 36,000 Palestinians slaughtered by Israel were women and children. Gaza is reported to have the largest population of child amputees in the world.
“We welcome this reported move by the United Nations to name and shame the far-right Israeli government for its ongoing abuses and violence targeting children,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “The Biden administration should take note and end its complicity with the Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
Earlier today, CAIR called on the Biden administration to condemn the reported rape and torture of Palestinian detainees held by Israel’s far-right government.
Yesterday, CAIR condemned what it called the latest “Israeli war crimes of the day” after video was posted online showing Israeli soldiers celebrating blowing up a mosque in Gaza.
In yet another video posted online, Israeli soldiers are shown reportedly dragging the body of a slain Palestinian while other soldiers stand nearby. Another shows a Palestinian woman reportedly seeking food for her children killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza.
Also yesterday, CAIR condemned the massacre of 40 people by Israeli forces at a UN-run school in central Gaza, 23 of whom were reportedly women and children. CAIR also applauded a call by the NAACP for President Biden to “indefinitely” halt all weapons deliveries to Israel and to put pressure on Israel to end its genocide in Gaza.
CAIR recently called on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media companies to shut down a secret campaign by the far-right Israeli government to pressure Congress to continue the flow of taxpayer funds for its genocide in Gaza and called on President Biden to condemn the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR also called for international action after a report by Oxfam found that “85 percent of children did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey was conducted” and that thousands of displaced people are being forced to use one toilet.
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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