The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned what it called the latest “Israeli war crimes of the day” after video was posted online showing Israeli soldiers celebrating blowing up a mosque in Gaza.
“Today we are blowing up a mosque. No more Friday prayers, yeah,” said the soldiers after reportedly planting explosives inside a mosque in Khan Younis, in Gaza. Addressing the people of Israel, the soldiers say: “You’re preparing sabbath and we’re preparing an explosion for you.”
Another video online shows an Israeli soldier blowing up a home in Rafah, Gaza, saying “for you mom.”
In yet another video posted online, Israeli soldiers are shown reportedly dragging the body of a slain Palestinian while other soldiers stand nearby. Another shows a Palestinian woman reportedly seeking food for her children killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza.
“These horrifying videos are evidence of the daily war crimes being carried out by the forces of the far-right Israeli government against Palestinian civilians, with the complicity of the Biden administration,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “This Israeli-U.S. genocide must end and those responsible must be held accountable by the international community.”
[NOTE: CAIR is now using the term “Israeli-U.S.” to describe war crimes in Gaza because the Biden administration’s ongoing provision of money and weapons to the Israeli government, despite President Biden’s violated red lines, makes the U.S. intentionally complicit in the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians.]
Earlier today, CAIR condemned the massacre of 40 people by Israeli forces at a UN-run school in central Gaza, 23 of whom were reportedly women and children. CAIR also applauded a call by the NAACP for President Biden to “indefinitely” halt all weapons deliveries to Israel and to put pressure on Israel to end its genocide in Gaza.
Yesterday, CAIR called on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media companies to shut down a secret campaign by the far-right Israeli government to pressure Congress to continue the flow of taxpayer funds for its genocide in Gaza and called on President Biden to condemn the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR also called for international action after a report by Oxfam found that “85 percent of children did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey was conducted” and that thousands of displaced people are being forced to use one toilet.
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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