Photo: One of two photos sent to Congress. Photo of two-year-old Yazan Abu Foul, a resident of Al-Shati Refugee Camp in western Gaza City. Photographer: AbdulHakim Abu Riash. Photo released with permission.
Photos sent to every member of Congress, over 3,600 congressional staffers
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today announced that it has electronically delivered an open letter titled “The Endgame in Gaza Has Arrived” to every office in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, including more than 3,600 congressional staff members.
In the largest targeted congressional communication in CAIR’s history, the message was sent to Chiefs of Staff, Legislative Directors, Communications Directors, and staff handling policy portfolios related to international affairs, national security, defense, civil rights, and minority issues. The emailed letter included two graphic photographs of skeletal Palestinian children – one already starved to death, the other barely clinging to life.
CLICK HERE: READ CAIR’S OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS ON GAZA GENOCIDE, MASS STARVATION
In what CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw described as CAIR “clearly demonstrating to Congress that mass starvation is already happening in Gaza,” the open letter documents how widespread famine is in Gaza, that mass starvation is accelerating, and the United States government is complicit.
The letter cites statements issued this week by over 100 humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children, warning of “mass starvation” in Gaza. It also references a Times of Israel report confirming that four children, including a six-week-old infant, died of starvation within the past 24 hours.
According to CAIR’s letter, the true death toll is likely far higher, with reports of over 1,000 starving Palestinians shot while trying to reach food at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) “aid” sites, many of which operate with U.S. support. The letter calls them “death traps” and “open-air concentration camps.”
CAIR’s message to Congress concludes with a plea for immediate action: “You must act. Demand an end to U.S. weapons transfers. Demand an end to Israel’s blockade. Demand that Israel accept an immediate, permanent, and comprehensive ceasefire… Do not wait until there is no one left to starve or kill. Do not wait until history or God Almighty judges us.”
CAIR is calling on all members of Congress to read the open letter in full and take immediate steps to stop U.S. complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Copied below is the text of CAIR’s letter to Congress in full:
Greetings:
We are writing to you today not as policy analysts or civil rights activists, but as human beings. As Americans. As parents. As people who were taught that starving children is always wrong. That mass murder cannot be rationalized. That the words never again are supposed to mean never again – not unless it’s Palestinians.
We have now reached the endgame of the Israeli government’s systematic campaign of forced starvation, ethnic cleansing and mass murder in Gaza using American taxpayer dollars, American weapons and American diplomatic protection.
Ignoring the genocide in Gaza or justifying it with the usual talking points will not stop Americans from seeing live-streamed images of skeletal children dying in their mothers’ arms. These are not propaganda clips. These are the real-time consequences of U.S.-funded bombs, U.S.-backed sieges, and U.S.-enabled impunity.
Just today, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Oxfam, and more than 100 other organizations issued a joint statement warning of “mass starvation” in Gaza, and declaring: “Every day without a sustained flow of aid means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive.”
In the past 48 hours, the Netanyahu government’s starvation blockade has killed more than 20 people. According to The Times of Israel, “within the past 24 hours, a six-week-old infant and three other children died of starvation.” Health officials report that 88 people have now officially died from hunger since the war began, including 78 children.
But the true toll is far higher. The World Food Program warns that “nearly 1 in every 3 people in Gaza is not eating for days at a time.” The International Rescue Committee says famine is already here. This is not a future risk. It is present, it is preventable, and it is accelerating.
Since May, UNRWA estimates that more than 1,000 starving Palestinians have been gunned down while attempting to receive food at so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites– death traps established with U.S. support. These are not “safe zones.” They are open-air concentration camps, killing grounds where children and parents are executed for daring to seek bread.
Almost daily, there are new reports of mass shootings of the starving. On some days, over 100 are slaughtered. On others, the wounded number in the thousands. The victims are not militants. They are men, women, and children holding empty pots. Even worshipers at a Catholic church are not safe.
This is not self-defense. This is not war. This is genocide by starvation, slow, public, and deliberate. And the United States is underwriting it.
Every American taxpayer dollar Congress sends to the Israeli government – whether for “defense” systems, joint operations, or replenishing 2,000-pound bombs – frees up Israeli resources to tighten the noose around Gaza’s neck. Every shipment of U.S. weapons that reaches Israeli hands is an accelerant poured onto a civilian inferno.
The House’s recently advanced NDAA package includes over $600 million in direct military funding to Israel. Those are our tax dollars. They are being used to offset the cost of executing a genocide in Gaza and launching reckless strikes on other nations, most recently Syria – destabilizing the region and dragging the U.S. into ever more dangerous entanglements.
You must act. Demand an end to U.S. weapons transfers. Demand an end to Israel’s blockade. Demand that Israel accept an immediate, permanent, and comprehensive ceasefire that ends the genocide for good and frees all captives. Demand immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access through border crossings. Demand justice for the dead and the dying.
We are imploring you. Do not wait until there is no one left to starve or kill. Do not wait until history or God Almighty judges us.
The time to stop this horror and save these starving men, women and children is now.
Sincerely,
The Council on American-Islamic Relations
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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