The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Biden administration to “break it silence” on the Israeli government’s daily war crimes after the Israeli soldiers blew up a water reservoir in Gaza, and Palestinian detainees shared more reports of torture and abuse.
An Israeli soldier posted video of that destruction on social media stating: “Destruction of the Tal as-Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat.”
[NOTE: Israel’s systematic destruction of the civilian infrastructure, and the resulting lack of clean water, in Gaza has caused the spread of diseases, including polio. Earlier this month, CAIR called on the Biden administration to take action to prevent the spread of polio in Gaza after the virus was detected in wastewater after the sewage system was devastated by Israel’s ongoing US-enabled genocide.]
The Washington Post reported today:
“Former Palestinian prisoners described routine beatings, often carried out on entire cells or sections, usually with batons and sometimes with dogs. They said they were denied sufficient food and medical care and were subjected to psychological as well as physical abuse.
The Post spoke to 11 former prisoners and half a dozen lawyers, examined court records and reviewed autopsy reports, revealing rampant, sometimes deadly violence and deprivation by Israeli prison authorities.”
CAIR has repeatedly called on the Biden administration to address reports of Israeli rape and torture of Palestinian prisoners and the alleged summary execution of detainees.
Israel has already slaughtered almost 40,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and displaced the vast majority of its population in a campaign of systematic destruction of homes and infrastructure.
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“Every day that the Biden administration provides financial, diplomatic and military support for the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza, War Criminal Netanyahu feels emboldened to carry out even more human rights abuse like blowing up a water reservoir and raping detainees with electric rods.
“The Biden administration must break its silence, enforce its own red line, and stop sending weapons to support the Israeli government’s ethnic cleansing, mass destruction, forced starvation, and genocide in Gaza. We don’t just need occasional moments of softer rhetoric. We need action.”
On Saturday, CAIR said the Biden administration is “normalizing war crimes” if it fails to react to the latest Israeli massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Last week, CAIR welcomed a letter to President Biden by U.S. medical personnel who volunteered to treat victims of the Israeli genocide in Gaza demanding an arms embargo over “unbearable cruelty” inflicted by Israel.
Also last week, CAIR demanded that the Biden administration address reports that American doctors who volunteered in Gaza experienced treating “incinerated” and “shredded” children, including children deliberately shot in the chest and head by Israeli snipers.
CAIR also called on the Biden administration to address reports that Israel is applying a racist policy to block American physicians with Palestinian heritage from entering Gaza.
On Thursday, CAIR condemned lawmakers who applauded Netanyahu’s “racist, delusional, genocidal” address to Congress.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@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