Muslim civil rights group also asks president to condemn Israeli-Imposed Famine in Gaza, building of road to divide Gaza
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Biden administration to address reported sexual violence, arbitrary detention and abuse by the forces of the far-right Israeli government targeting Palestinian women and girls.
CAIR also urged the president to condemn the growing Israeli-imposed famine in Gaza and Israel’s building of a road designed to cut Gaza in two.
In a new report, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights cited “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank by Israeli forces. CNN reports that the allegations “include extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention, degrading treatment, rape and sexual violence.”
SEE: UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls
The Wall Street Journal reports that Israel is expanding a road across central Gaza as part of its plans to maintain control over the enclave, effectively cutting Gaza in two and making the return of civilians to the north more difficult. The road-building comes as Israeli is demolishing Palestinian homes on a one kilometer “buffer zone” inside Gaza’s border, where Palestinians would be barred from entry.
CAIR previously condemned a policy of the far-right Israeli government to carry out its ethnic cleansing of Gaza by burning unoccupied Palestinian homes from which residents have been forced to flee.
SEE: CAIR Condemns Israeli ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Policy of Burning Unoccupied Gaza Homes
The World Food Program said Tuesday it has paused deliveries of food to northern Gaza. The U.N. agency warned that one in six children in northern Gaza are acutely malnourished. Many Gaza families limit themselves to one meal a day and now mix animal and bird fodder with grains to bake bread. More than 90 percent of children under five in Gaza eat two or fewer food groups a day.
Israel has already killed almost 30,000 Gazans, mostly women and children.
Yesterday, CAIR called the reported looting of Gaza by the forces of the far-right Israeli government a “symptom of genocide and ethnic cleansing” and condemned the United States veto on a UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
END
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