The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today urged the Biden administration not to veto a resolution at an upcoming United Nations Security Council meeting that would enable full UN membership for the State of Palestine.
On Friday, the UN Security Council is set to vote on a Palestinian request for full U.N. membership, a move that the United States is expected to block because it would effectively recognize a Palestinian state. A draft resolution recommends to the U.N. General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations.”
SEE: UN Security Council to vote Friday on Palestinian UN membership
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“After decades of denial of the rights of the Palestinian people, and clear and unequivocal statements by Israeli officials that they will never recognize a state of Palestine, it is up to the United Nations to grant Palestine full membership in the community of nations.
“A U.S. veto of Palestine’s UN membership would align our nation with the worst extremists in the far-right Israeli government and send the message to the Palestinian people that their suffering means nothing to the Biden administration and that they will forever live in a national no man’s land.”
Awad also condemned the reported torture, ill treatment and sexual violence inflicted by Israeli forces on Palestinian detainees, as detailed in a new UN report.
SEE: UNRWA details harrowing torture of Gazans detained by Israel
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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