Muslim civil rights and advocacy group calls on all members of Congress to condemn plan, oppose military aid to Israel, and express support for U.S. recognition of Palestinian state
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called the Israeli government’s new plan to establish racially-segregated illegal settlements in a key part of the occupied West Bank a “death blow” to any possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
CAIR said that all members of Congress should condemn the plan, announce their opposition to further military aid to Israel, and express support for U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state.
According to reports, the planned settlement expansion would deliberately isolate Palestinian communities in the West Bank, consolidating Israeli control and dismantling any future prospects for a two-state solution.
SEE: Israel advances controversial settlement plan, aiming to ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’ – CNN
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“The Israeli government’s new settlement expansion is explicitly meant to serve as a death blow to any prospect of a Palestinian state. Because the Trump administration and Speaker Johnson have made it clear that they support the Israeli government’s attempts to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people from their land, members of Congress must finally and collectively speak up.
“Every member of Congress should condemn this plan, announce their opposition to further military aid to Israel, and express support for U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state. American taxpayers should not be funding human rights abuses or the systematic denial of the rights of the Palestinian people.”
CAIR reaffirmed its commitment to advocating for justice and human rights in Palestine and around the world and urged all Americans to contact their elected representatives to oppose any U.S. support for Israel’s genocide and apartheid policies.”
Yesterday, CAIR condemned the “glaring omission” of the Gaza genocide from the U.S. State Department’s latest Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, calling the report’s treatment of Israel deeply inadequate and morally indefensible.
CAIR also condemned members of Congress from both major parties who spent the August congressional recess on trips to Israel funded by the anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic lobby group AIPAC’s American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF) affiliate instead of meeting with their constituents, speaking out against the Gaza genocide, and addressing urgent issues at home.
This week, CAIR condemned Israel’s U.S.-backed “unrelenting slaughter” of forcibly-starved civilians in Gaza after at least 31 people were murdered as they desperately sought food for their starving families.
Also this week, CAIR welcomed a decision by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to recognize a Palestinian state at next month’s United Nations General Assembly but said that Western nations now recognizing Palestine must go further by imposing an arms embargo on Israel over its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
On Sunday, CAIR condemned Israel’s assassination of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza and called on U.S. and international media professionals to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues under attack.
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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