The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today responded to President Biden’s State of the Union Address by welcoming improvement in his rhetoric about Palestinian suffering in Gaza but said that the president “must stop trying to play both firefighter and arsonist” by sending aid while enabling the Israeli government’s genocidal military campaign.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“President Biden has finally started to improve his rhetoric on Gaza by acknowledging the massive civilian death toll, but the problem is that he still refuses to meaningfully change his policy on the Gaza genocide.
“He must stop trying to play both firefighter and arsonist. He shouldn’t need to build a pier in Gaza to get humanitarian aid past the Israeli blockade, and it makes no sense to simultaneously send thousands of new U.S. bombs and billions more in American taxpayer dollars to the far-right Israeli government.
“President Biden must use American leverage over the Israeli government to secure a real, immediate and permanent ceasefire, full access to humanitarian aid and the pursuit of a just, lasting peace. He must demand a lifting of the siege on Gaza and an end to the occupation.
“Anything less is not acceptable to millions of Americans.”
Prior to the address, CAIR said it was the president’s “best and perhaps last chance” to announce concrete steps showing he is listening to the American people demanding that his administration end its immoral support for the genocide in Gaza and secure a permanent ceasefire.
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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