The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on media outlets in the United States and worldwide to condemn Israel’s targeted assassination of Palestinian journalist Hasan ‘Abdel Rahim Hamad.
Yesterday, Israeli forces reportedly targeted journalist Hamad’s house. Hamad, who worked in Media Town Company and cooperated with different media institutions, was covering and filming from his house the Israeli bombardment and ground attack on the Jabalia refugee camp. Hamad spent the previous night voice-recording and publishing videos streaming the latest developments in Jabalia, and the latest video he posted was just half an hour before being targeted.
On 13 May 2024, Hamad reportedly received a message on WhatsApp from an Israeli number, threatening to kill him and his family if he continued reporting on Israel’s war crimes.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed during the course of Israel’s attack on Gaza – more journalists than have died in the course of any year since CPJ began documenting journalist killings in 1992.
In a statement, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said:
“Israeli forces are assassinating journalists in order to cover up their war crimes and other atrocities and crimes against humanity. Media professionals in the United States and across the world must break their silence and speak out to condemn Israel’s intentional targeting of journalists. The far-right Israeli government cannot be allowed to commit such war crimes without being held accountable.
“Through it silence on such atrocities, and its ongoing support for Israel’s genocide, the Biden administration shares the blame for these crimes.”
He noted that CAIR said it is “running out of words to condemn Israeli atrocities” after 26 people were killed and 93 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza Sunday.
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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