The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Biden administration to take action following new allegations of Israeli torture of Palestinian detainees.
SEE: Israel frees hospital chief with prisons ‘full’ of Gaza captives – Al Jazeera
The release of the director of Al-Shifa Hospital after seven months of detention draws an outcry in Israel. – New York Times
After his release without charge from Israeli detention today, al-Shifa Hospital Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya reported that Palestinians in Israel’s prisons were facing daily abuse. “There was almost daily torture. Cells are broken into and prisoners are beaten. Several inmates died in interrogation centers and were deprived of food and medicine,” said Abu Salmiya. Abu Salmiya said even medical staff were responsible for abuse and neglect, with some detainees’ limbs amputated due to poor medical care. He said detainees survived on nothing but bread for two months.
A lawyer who visited one Israeli detention center said the “situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.” CNN and the New York Times have reported on rape and sexual assault at the same detention center.
[NOTE: Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was recorded advocating for the execution of Palestinian prisoners instead of providing them with proper food in detention. Ben-Gvir recently ordered a reduction in food rations for Palestinian prisoners as a “deterrence” measure.
Last month, CAIR made a similar demand after growing reports of the systematic torture of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces after a Palestinian journalist from Gaza described the torture, abuse and rape that he and other detainees were subjected to at an Israeli detention camp.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“The Biden administration must take concrete action to end the widely-reported torture and abuse of thousands of Palestinian detainees being held by the genocidal Israeli government. These ongoing human rights abuses are made possible by the Biden administration’s complicity in the Israeli genocide and by decades of systematic dehumanization of the Palestinian people. Both the torture and the dehumanization must end.”
Yesterday, CAIR condemned both newly-revealed Israeli use of Palestinian civilians as “human shields” and recorded remarks by a top Israeli official calling for the summary execution or starvation of Palestinian prisoners.
In video aired exclusively by Al Jazeera, Palestinian prisoners are shown being forced to search homes for bombs or tunnels, and while Israeli troops sought protection from being fired on, they forced handcuffed and nearly-naked prisoners to search buildings. [NOTE: CAIR recently condemned another incident in which Israel forces used a Palestinian human shield.]
Over the weekend, CAIR’s New York chapter said a false claim by the far-right Israeli government’s new consul general that New York is under threat of “Muslim occupation” will likely lead to more hate crimes targeting ordinary Muslims and Arab-Americans.
Last week, CAIR condemned Israel’s blocking of Palestinian mothers from accompanying their children who left Gaza to Egypt for cancer treatment.
CAIR also condemned the Biden administration’s reported planned release of 500-lb. bombs that were part of a weapons shipment to Israel put on hold in April.
Earlier, CAIR condemned a genocidal threat by the Israeli government to return Lebanon to the “stone age” as reports from Gaza reveal that doctors have been forced to perform amputations without anesthesia on victims of Israel’s bombing campaign.
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
Another 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