The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned as “dishonest and delusional” comments by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin denying that there is evidence that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza.
When asked if he believed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza during a hearing, Secretary Austin replied that “we don’t have any evidence of genocide.”
At least 33,360 Palestinians have been killed and 75,993 others wounded in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. At least 7,000 others are missing, presumed buried under the debris after six months of Israeli bombing. The death toll includes more than 14,500 children and 9,560 women.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“We strongly condemn Secretary Austin for his dishonest and delusional genocide denial, which completely ignores the fact that the Israeli government made racist, genocidal threats at the start of this war and then spent six months acting on those threats by destroying civilian infrastructure, sparking a famine, ethnically cleansing entire cities, and massacring more than 33,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Secretary Austin and the rest of the Biden administration should be ashamed for making our nation complicit in what is obviously a genocide.”
He added that Sen. Elizabeth Warren said last week that she believes international courts could interpret Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.
The UN Special Rapporteur released a report last month concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met.”
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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