The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the dropping of charges against Israeli five soldiers shown on video sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee.
Associated Press reports: “A video of the alleged assault, which was aired by Israeli news, shows soldiers taking a detainee into an area they cordoned off with shields in an apparent attempt to hide their actions. The indictment said the soldiers assaulted the Palestinian prisoner and sodomized him with a knife, causing multiple injuries.”
In a statement, Washington, D.C., based CAIR said:
“By dropping charges against the Israeli soldiers caught raping Palestinian detainees on camera, the Israeli occupation has once again shown that it cannot be trusted to investigate itself and that it sanctions the crimes its soldiers commit.
“In addition to allowing this rape to go unpunished, the Israeli apartheid government is ignoring credible reports that other Palestinian hostages are currently facing rape, starvation, and torture in prisons run by far-right terrorist Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“The United States must stop arming and sanctioning these crimes and launch independent investigations into the crimes the Israeli government has committed against American citizens.”
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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