The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the Biden administration’s complicity in the starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza after the UN said that the Israeli government is using starvation as a “weapon of war.”
The UN said yesterday that Israel’s blocking of aid into devastated Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a “weapon of war”, which would be a “war crime”. “The situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods,” said UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk.
SEE: Israel may be using starvation as ‘weapon of war’
In war-ravaged Gaza, starving children fill hospital wards as famine looms
U.N. Says Israel May Be Restricting Gaza Aid as a War Tactic
World Bank says more than half of Gaza’s population on brink of famine
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“Innocent civilians in Gaza are being starved to death as part of the Israeli government’s genocidal campaign. This atrocity has been enabled by the Biden administration’s utter inability to stand up to what it claims is our nation’s ‘greatest ally.’ We urge the Biden administration to immediately change course and demand an end to Israel’s siege and an immediate ceasefire.”
He noted that Israel is not allowing many of the aid trucks on the Egyptian side of the border to enter Gaza and deliver aid.
END
CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-999-8292, 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