The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned a genocidal threat by the Israeli government to return Lebanon to the “stone age.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel has “the ability to take Lebanon back to the Stone Age” when discussing the rising tensions in the region. Gallant previously referred to all Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” when justifying a blockade of water, food, fuel, and other necessities to everyone there.
Gallant’s latest genocidal statement comes as reports from Gaza reveal that doctors have been forced to perform amputations on victims of Israel’s bombing campaign due to the siege and blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza.
The Agence France-Presse news agency quoted a doctor at Al-Ahli hospital: “There are moments when anesthesia is not available, but in order to save the lives of citizens, we resort to amputation, and this causes severe pain for the wounded…Every day, there are attacks that result in amputations of legs or arms for children, adults, and women.”
SEE: Israel warns it could send Lebanon ‘back to the Stone Age’
SEE ALSO: Amputations soar but prostheses and painkillers lacking in besieged Gaza
In a statement, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said:
“The Israeli government has already reduced Gaza to stone age conditions through its genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing, forced starvation and ceaseless bombing. Despite the open genocidal threats of Israeli leaders, the Biden administration is continuing to provide them moral and material support. The American people are tired of their government’s open complicity in these crimes against humanity. The Biden administration must immediately change course and demand an end to the genocide.”
He noted that a new report has exposed an Israeli war crime last year in which 11 Palestinian men in Gaza were executed in front of women and children. Survivors said the Israeli soldiers left a “bloodbath” in their wake. At that time, CAIR called for a United Nations investigation of the “summary executions” of unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members.
SEE: “They Didn’t Spare Anyone”: The Story of an Israeli Massacre in Gaza | The Nation
He also noted that a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council has confirmed that 83% of Palestinians displaced from Rafah by Israel have no access to food, 52% have no access to dignified shelter, and 57% have no access to safe water.
SEE: On-the-record update #4 on situation in Gaza, Palestine
Yesterday, CAIR said a new report by Scripps News and Bellingcat shows that Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza is seeking to erase Palestinian culture.
SEE: CAIR Says New Report Shows Israeli Genocide Seeking to Erase Palestinian Cultural Heritage in Gaza
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@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