Muslim civil rights and advocacy group calls on members of Congress to recognize genocide, back suspension of military aid to Israel
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today said Israel’s genocide in Gaza is “undeniable” after release of a UN commission’s report on Israeli war crimes found that they constitute a genocide.
The commission chair said: “The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza. It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
Israel has slaughtered almost 65,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza. Some 428 Gazans, including 146 children, have been starved to death in Israel’s manufactured famine.
A secret Israeli intelligence database shows that least 83 percent of Palestinians slaughtered in Gaza were civilians – not combatants. Even former Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi acknowledged that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured since the start of Israel’s Gaza genocide.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“The world can no longer look away. The evidence of genocide in Gaza is overwhelming, and now it has been confirmed by a United Nations investigation. The Israeli government has acted with clear intent to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza, and the result has been tens of thousands of innocent lives lost — most of them women and children.
“We call on members of Congress to immediately recognize this genocide, condemn it in the strongest possible terms, and act to suspend all military aid to the Israeli government. Our nation cannot continue using American taxpayer dollars to fund what every know is a genocide, whether they admit or not.
“The moral and legal obligation is clear — Congress must act now to stop the killing, hold the perpetrators accountable, and help bring justice to the Palestinian people.”
He said CAIR continues to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the restoration of full humanitarian access to Gaza international accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity, and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.
Earlier this month, CAIR 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.
Earlier this year, CAIR welcomed the recognition of the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza by two prominent Israeli human rights organizations.
Over the weekend, CAIR said Israel’s daily slaughter of Palestinian children must stop after 12 children were reported murdered by Israeli terror forces in Gaza
CAIR recently commended U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) for their courage and moral clarity in issuing a groundbreaking report accusing indicted war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of overseeing a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinian people – and implicating the U.S. government in complicity through its continued military and political support. WATCH.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR also called Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) an “accomplice in genocide” after he was caught on video denying the existence of the Israeli-manufactured famine in Gaza and falsely claiming that “Palestine is a made up fiction.”
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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