The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today said Secretary of State Antony Blinken should resign after reports that he has ended the investigation into the Israel military’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for war crimes human rights violations in the occupied West Bank.
Blinken reportedly told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that the U.S. will not impose sanctions on the unit. One of the unit’s war crimes resulted in the death of 80-year-old Palestinian American Omar Assad.
In a statement, CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“Secretary Blinken is knowingly violating U.S. law by backtracking on his plan to sanction an Israeli military unit that has clearly committed gross human rights violations using U.S. weapons. Secretary Blinken’s cowardly, morally reprehensible and blatantly illegal decision confirms what numerous State Department whistleblowers have said: he is disregarding the conclusions of career diplomats, as well as experts on federal and international law. Secretary Blinken is now as much of a war criminal as the war criminal he will continue to arm, Israeli defense minister Gallant, and he should resign his office in disgrace.”
He noted that earlier this year, CAIR condemned Blinken’s apparent backtracking on sanctioning the unit for human rights abuses.
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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