The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on Congress and the Trump administration to take immediate action after a New York Times report detailed horrifying allegations of widespread sexual abuse, rape, torture, and humiliation of Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities.
SEE: The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians – New York Times
WATCH: Palestinian journalist Ali al-Samoudi recounts torture in Israeli prison
TAKE ACTION NOW: Demand Congress and the Trump Administration Act on Reports of Sexual Abuse and Torture of Palestinian Detainees
In a post on X, The Times’ Nicholas Kristof wrote:
“One man described being raped three times in a single day in Israeli prison, the third time after he tried to protest. A young woman said the guards would come in at the beginning of each shift and strip her naked and abuse her. Another reported that she was shown photos of herself being raped and warned they would be released unless she cooperated with Israeli intelligence. Even three children who had been detained told me they had been sexually abused.”
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“These shocking reports of rape, sexual torture, and abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli guards demand immediate international accountability. No government that receives billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer funding should be allowed to commit such horrific crimes with impunity. Congress and the Trump administration must stop ignoring mounting evidence of this systematic abuse and take immediate action to end our nation’s complicity in these atrocities. The international community cannot continue applying one standard to some victims of sexual violence and another to Palestinians. Human rights and human dignity must be universal.”
[NOTE: Late last year, CAIR called for the United States to impose sanctions on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other members of the Israeli government responsible for the apartheid state’s prisons after a Palestinian journalist and others kidnapped by Israel recounted details of sexual assaults, including the use of various objects and dogs to sodomize them. SEE: CAIR Condemns Israeli Prison’s Use of Dogs, Objects to Rape Palestinians ]
Mitchell called for an independent international investigation into allegations of sexual violence and torture against Palestinian detainees; immediate access for international human rights monitors to Israeli detention facilities; suspension of U.S. military aid to the Israeli government; and congressional hearings on U.S. complicity in violations of international law.
He noted that last year, CAIR said a report by UN experts exposing genocidal acts and sexual violence by the Israeli government in Gaza should be a “wakeup call for the international community.”
CAIR has repeatedly called for U.S and international action to stop Israel’s torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners.
Over the weekend, CAIR condemned the forced desecration of a Palestinian grave in the occupied West Bank by illegal Israeli settlers.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR also condemned an order by Israeli authorities to uproot 3,000 Palestinian trees in the occupied West Bank under the direction of far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
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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