The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other members of Congress who claim to support human rights to stop denying the Gaza genocide and support an arms embargo on the Israeli government after the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) overwhelmingly passed a resolution declaring that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
SEE: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, scholars’ association says – Reuters
[NOTE: CAIR recently called on Congress to “pick America over AIPAC” in response to a Quinnipiac poll showing that 50 percent of voters recognize that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, six in 10 voters (60 percent) oppose sending military aid to Israel, and an equal number of voters now express sympathy for Palestinians and Israelis (37 percent to 36 percent). ALSO NOTE:Belgium is the latest nation to impose sanctions on Israel for its genocide in Gaza.]
Eighty-six percent of IAGS members who voted backed the resolution declaring that:
“Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).”
The resolution further states that Israel’s actions also “constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined in international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” It calls on the government of Israel to immediately cease deliberate attacks on civilians, starvation, deprivation of humanitarian aid, sexual and reproductive violence, forced displacement, and other acts identified as genocide and crimes against humanity.
In just the past 24 hours, Israel has starved to death 13 people, including three children. Israeli terror forces have slaughtered more than 63,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. Even Israeli data shows that 83 percent of those slaughtered were civilians. Israeli terrorists today murdered five children in a so-called “safe area.”
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“This declaration by the world’s leading genocide scholars confirms what Palestinians and internationally-respected human rights organizations have been saying for months: Israel’s war of annihilation in Gaza is not only morally indefensible but also meets the strict legal definition of genocide.
“Sen. Schumer, Rep. Jeffries and all members of Congress who claim to care about human rights and the rule of law must stop denying the Gaza genocide and immediately endorse an arms embargo on the Israeli government. Since the Trump administration has made clear that it fully supports the genocide, Congress and nations around the world must take action, including the pursuit of sanctions.”
CAIR is calling on the Trump administration to immediately halt all military aid to Israel, support international accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ), and press for an end to forced starvation of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire that guarantees the rights and security of Palestinians.
Over the weekend, CAIR said that a newly-reported secret Trump administration proposal for a U.S.-Israeli takeover of Gaza and the theft of Palestinian land through a digital tokenization scheme “would amount to a war crime of historic proportions that would spark generations of conflict and forever stain America’s legacy.”
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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