The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned a newly-revealed policy of the far-right Israeli government to carry out its ethnic cleansing of Gaza by burning unoccupied Palestinian homes from which residents have been forced to flee.
Haaretz reports says it has obtained exclusive information detailing how Israeli army commanders have been ordering the destruction of unoccupied Gaza homes. Haaretz said: “After the structure is set on fire along with everything inside it, it is allowed to burn out until it is rendered useless.”
The Israeli newspaper cited three army officials who confirmed that this is a common practice. This report follows admissions from Israeli officials that they seek a “buffer zone” around Gaza, the creation of which involves the destruction of whole residential areas.
SEE: Israel’s Controlled Demolitions Are Razing Neighborhoods in Gaza (NYT)
In a statement, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said:
“The far-right Israeli government’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza is obvious for all who wish to see, as evidenced by this newly-revealed policy of intentional burning of homes. The Biden administration must end its complicity in this clear campaign of ethnic cleansing by demanding a permanent ceasefire and a just resolution to the conflict based on freedom, justice and dignity for the Palestinian people.”
Hooper said that yesterday, CAIR said the International Court of Justice (ICJ) should add a reported massacre of Palestinians in Gaza to South Africa’s charge of genocide against the far-right Israeli government.
He noted that CAIR recently called on President Biden to personally condemn an Israeli massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza who were waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza City.
In December, CAIR called Israel’s massacre of at least 70 people in a strike on Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp and murdered a number of pregnant women.
Also in December, CAIR calls for a United Nations investigation of allegations that Israeli forces in Gaza carried our summary executions of unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members.
Last week, CAIR welcomed a preliminary ruling ICJ, the UN’s principal judicial body, that declares South Africa’s charge of genocide against the Israeli government plausible.
Earlier this week, CAIR condemned the Biden administration’s “morally depraved and glaringly inconsistent” decision to engage in collective punishment against Palestinians by cutting funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in response to unsubstantiated and suspiciously timed allegations made by the Israeli government.
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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