The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today said the Biden administration must stop “justifying war crimes” the Israeli government has perpetrated against hospitals after an investigation by the Washington Post debunked claims by the Israeli government’s “evidence” that Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital had to be attacked because it was a military command center.
The Post’s analysis, which used open-source visuals, satellite imagery and all of the publicly released IDF materials, found that:
- The rooms connected to a tunnel network allegedly discovered by IDF troops showed no immediate evidence of military use.
- None of the 5 hospital buildings appeared to be connected to the tunnel network.
- There is no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards.
Hours before IDF troops attacked, entered and forcibly vacated the complex, the Biden administration declassified US intelligence assessments that it claimed bolstered the Israeli government’s claims. Following the failure to find proof of military activity, Israeli and US officials have not altered their claims, and the Israeli government has launched assaults on other medical facilities in Gaza.
SEE: Investigating the assault on al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/21/al-shifa-hospital-gaza-hamas-israel/
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“You don’t have to be a theologian or an expert in international law to understand that besieging and bombing a hospital full of sick and injured people is wrong. The United States should apologize for enabling the Israeli government’s deadly attack on Al-Shifa Hospital, stop justifying war crimes against other medical facilities in Gaza, and demand a ceasefire before Netanyahu kills more innocent people in his government’s genocidal war.”
He noted that yesterday, CAIR said Israel’s new ethnic cleansing order, the bulldozing of bodies in a Gaza cemetery and the forced starvation of Palestinian children are the latest “Israeli car crimes of the day.”
SEE: CAIR Calls Israel’s New Ethnic Cleansing, Bulldozing of Bodies in Cemetery, Forced Starvation of Gaza Children the Latest ‘Israeli War Crimes of the Day’ –
Earlier, CAIR joined calls for a United Nations investigation of the latest “Israeli war crime of the day” – allegations that Israeli forces in Gaza carried our summary executions of unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members. Eyewitnesses are now coming forward to confirm these allegations.
Israel has now killed more than 20,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and including hundreds of UN workers, journalists and medical personnel.
Earlier this week, CAIR condemned other “war crimes of the day,” including the reported mass killing of a Palestinian grandfather’s family in front of his eyes, vandalism of West Bank homes by Israeli forces, the deaths and alleged torture of Palestinian detainees, and more massacres in refugee camps and residential areas of Gaza.
Also this week, CAIR condemned a deadly Israeli strikes on a Gaza maternity hospital and other medical facilities, the killing of more than 100 people in a refugee camp and the killing of two Christians seeking shelter in a besieged church.
Pope Francis condemned Israel’s killing of two Christian women sheltering at a Catholic parish in Gaza, noting that “unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire.”
At least 110 people were killed in Israel’s bombing of Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
Over the weekend, CAIR called for United Nations to investigate reports that Israeli forces in Gaza bulldozed medical tents with injured Palestinians inside, allegedly burying civilians alive and said that the Israeli military’s killing of three unarmed, shirtless Israelis waving a white flag is further proof that Israeli troops are “wantonly killing Palestinian civilians.”
Earlier today, CAIR said that the Israeli military’s killing of three unarmed, shirtless Israelis waving a white flag is further proof that Israeli troops are “wantonly killing Palestinian civilians.”
CAIR recently called on the Biden administration to respond to reports that Israel forces shot women, children and babies “execution-style” after they sought refuge in a school in Gaza.
CAIR condemned the attempted assassination of an Al Jazeera journalist (and the ultimate death of another) by Israeli forces, the desecration of Gaza cemeteries by Israeli troops in Gaza, and a deadly airstrike targeting a UN school in Gaza.
OTHER ISRAELI WAR CRIMES:
A new US intelligence assessment concluded that nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza have been unguided, also known as “dumb bombs.” Unguided munitions are typically less precise and can pose a greater threat to civilians.
CAIR condemned the Israeli government’s celebration of IDF troops who took over and desecrated a mosque in the West Bank as an “attack on Islam.”
CAIR said the far-right Israeli government’s controlled demolition of a U.N. school in Gaza is “further evidence of the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.”
Video posted online shows a man, reportedly with special needs, being detained by Israeli soldiers and then shot at point-blank range.
CAIR condemned an Israeli attack on another hospital in Gaza and said the Biden administration is actively participating in Israel’s “ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people.”
CAIR condemned another “war crime of the day” – the slaughter of at least 50 civilians in airstrikes on two UN-run schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
CAIR recently called on the Biden administration to address reporting that the U.S. supplied the Israeli government with white phosphorus used in attacks on civilian areas.
The Israeli government’s extremist leaders have declared that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, justified cutting off water, electricity and other basic necessities because Palestinians are ‘human animals,’ embraced an ancient biblical verse about the mass slaughter of an entire city from animals to infants, demanded a million residents of northern Gaza leave their homes or face death, and announced that the aim of the bombing in Gaza was destruction rather than accuracy.
CAIR said a new report by Heritage for Peace detailing Israel’s ongoing destruction of Palestinian cultural sites shows its desire to entirely “eliminate Palestinian existence.”
Washington, D.C., based CAIR questioned whether Western leaders even regard Palestinians as “human” after more than 700 women, children and men were massacred by Israel within just the last 24 hours.
CAIR condemned the “Israeli war crime of the day” after more than 100 men, women and children were killed in the bombing of residential buildings hosting displaced families in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
END
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