The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today said the far-right Israeli government’s passage of a law to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) that is serving the suffering people of Gaza is further evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent.
UNRWA is the main humanitarian agency in Gaza and was created by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide food, healthcare and education to Palestinian refugees. Israel’s actions would deprive some three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza from any service provided by UNRWA.
Israel’s actions came as President Joe Biden said that Israel’s war in Gaza “should end.” “We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end, it should end, it should end,” Biden told reporters.
Earlier today, CAIR welcomed a detailed submission by South Africa to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) outlining evidence of Israel’s violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza.
Israel has already slaughtered more than 43,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and has destroyed most of the civilian infrastructure, forcibly displaced almost all of the civilian population, and imposed forced starvation.
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“We strongly condemn the far-right Israeli government for its latest attempt to erase the Palestinian people from their own land. Banning a decades-old United Nations agency responsible for feeding, sheltering, clothing, and educating Palestinian refugees represents a blatant attempt to cut off a key lifeline for survivors and descendants of the Nakba. President Biden’s own refusal to restore funding for UNWRA, combined with his ongoing funding of the Israeli government’s genocide, contributed to this moment. It’s time for President Biden to stop calling for the genocide to end and start forcing it to end.”
Yesterday, CAIR today called on Microsoft to rehire and apologize to two employees who were reportedly fired for organizing a vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in the far-right Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza.
Over the weekend, CAIR demanded that the Biden administration take concrete actions to stop Israeli’s genocide after the United Nation’s top humanitarian aid official said, “the entire population of North Gaza is at risk of dying.”
Last week,CAIR said the Israeli government’s latest slaughter of babies and children in Gaza should “shock the conscience” of Biden administration officials supporting the genocide in Gaza.
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.
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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