The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today announced that it is endorsing the Drop the Genocide 20 declaration, a call by human rights groups for former Biden administration officials who helped enable Israel’s genocide in Gaza in violation of federal law.
The declaration was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America, AIPAC Tracker, Palestine Youth Movement, Peace Action and About Face.
In a statement, Washington, D.C.-based CAIR said:
“We fully endorse the DroptheGenocide20 movement’s call for Biden administration officials who played major roles in illegally arming, justifying and otherwise enabling the Gaza genocide to face accountability. None of these 20 individuals, especially Brett McGurk and Jake Sullivan, should play any role in advising or serving elected officials, including the next President of the United States. Each of them knowingly made our nation complicit in the mass murder of innocent men, women and children, and none of them should hold positions of power now or in the future. The same should be true of current administration officials after they leave office.”
In their announcement, organizers of the #DroptheGenocide20 declaration wrote:
“The #DroptheGenocide20 Pledge is a baseline accountability commitment pledging to not hire, consult, or otherwise promote top Biden White House officials who were responsible for promoting, lying about, and covering up the Gaza genocide. The purpose of the list is to demand these officials be removed from future Democratic administrations, as well as think tanks and academic and liberal spaces.
“The culture of Bipartisan Elite Immunity is what drives US war crimes and support for war crimes. From the Vietnam War to post-9/11 torture to the Iraq War, elite war criminality never receives any meaningful sanction from either party. It is treated as a mere policy disagreement among friends.
“This dynamic is a key reason Biden officials knew they could arm, defend, and cover up the genocide in Gaza for 15 months, and simply move back into liberal spaces, nonprofits, and future governments. As we see those who backed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza under Biden get high-status jobs at major think tanks, media outlets, colleges, and consulting firms, we see this dynamic playing out before our very eyes.
“This is unacceptable. This is a bare-minimum commitment—and deliberately limited in scope. It is designed to start the process of accountability. It is not in and of itself sufficient.”
BACKGROUNDER:
Various news report have repeatedly confirmed that the Biden administration knew that Israeli forces were violating U.S. and international law in Gaza.
HuffPost has reported that President Biden “personally considered new American intelligence about Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza that prompted concerns that American and Israeli officials were violating U.S. and international law – then rejected suggestions from advisers to reduce American involvement in the war.”
The administration new that Israel was sending Palestinian human shields into Gaza tunnels potentially lined with explosives. The information was shared with the White House and analyzed by the intelligence community in the final weeks of former President Joe Biden’s administration, the officials said.
SEE: US intel revealed Israeli officials discussing use of human shields in Gaza, sources say
On March 18, CAIR sent letters to Harvard University President Alan M. Garber and Harvard Kennedy School Dean of Faculty Jeremy Weinstein, and University of New Hampshire (UNH) President Elizabeth Chilton and UNH Carsey School of Public Policy Director Stephen Bird, calling for on both university’s to “immediately revoke” Sullivan and McGurk’s appointments due to their involvement in violating federal law by enabling the funding and arming of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
READ: CAIR Letter to Harvard University
READ: CAIR’s Letter to University of New Hampshire
CAIR also welcomed a New York Times exposé of the Biden administration’s cover-up of the 2022 murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]