The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the U.S. Department of State to investigate new allegations that forces of the far-right Israeli government are torturing Palestinian detainees and allowing Israeli civilians to witness and record video footage of the abuses on their cell phones.
Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported that U.S. officials have been assessing Israel’s possible international law violations for months. The State Department is reportedly assessing whether Israel has committed human rights abuses that violate U.S. law.
Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reports:
“The Israeli army introduced groups of Israeli civilians into detention centres and prisons holding Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip, permitting the civilians to witness torture crimes against the detainees, with many allowed to film them on their own phones…
“According to testimony received by Euro-Med Monitor, groups of ten to twenty Israeli civilians at a time were permitted to watch and laughingly film Palestinian prisoners and detainees in their underwear while Israeli army soldiers subjected them to physical abuse, including beating them with metal batons, electric sticks, and pouring hot water on their heads.”
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“By itself, the torture of detainees is a war crime and further evidence that the far-right Israeli government is completely out of control. But it is even more shocking that the torturers would brazenly humiliate their victims by arranging for Israeli civilians to record the violence on their cell phones. The State Department must take concrete action to stop these crimes, which occur with U.S. financial and political support.”
Yesterday, CAIR expressed its support for South Africa’s request to the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to adopt emergency measures to protect Palestinian civilians after the Israeli attack on Rafah and its threats of depopulation and further attack on the city. CAIR also condemned the Senate’s “shameful” vote to approve $14 billion in unconditional military aid for the far-right Netanyahu government’s ongoing genocide in Gaza that has killed almost 30,000 Palestinians – mostly women and children.
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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