(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/23/22) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed a call by 24 members of the U.S. Senate calling on the Biden administration to ensure our nation’s direct involvement in the investigation of Israel’s assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
That statement by the senators states in part:
“We believe that, as a leader in the effort to protect the freedom of the press and the safety of journalists, and given the fact that Ms. Abu Akleh was an American citizen, the U.S. government has an obligation to ensure that a comprehensive, impartial, and open investigation into her shooting death is conducted — one in which all parties can have full confidence in the ultimate findings.”
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“We welcome this clear, direct and powerful Senate letter calling for the Biden administration to order an independent U.S. investigation into the murder of American citizen Shireen Abu Akleh. There is absolutely no excuse for the Biden administration to continue refusing to do so.
“We commend the senators who signed this letter, which sends a clear message that Shireen Abu Akleh’s assassination by Israeli forces cannot be covered up or ignored in the same way so many other brutal acts targeting Palestinians have been in past decades.”
Last month, CAIR welcomed a congressional letter signed by 57 members of the U.S. House Representatives calling onthe State Department and the FBI to investigate her murder.
Immediately following Abu Akleh’s assassination, CAIR urged the White House to condemn and withhold aid from Israel following the announcement of plans to build some 4,000 new racially-segregated housing units on occupied Palestinian land.
BACKGROUNDER ON ISRAELI APARTHEID:
A landmark report by Amnesty International detailed the Israeli government’s decades-long human rights abuses against the Palestinian people in both the Occupied Territories and Israel itself as a system of “apartheid.”
CAIR welcomed the international human rights organization’s comprehensive report, which notes that “almost all of Israel’s civilian administration and military authorities” are involved “in the enforcement of the system of apartheid against Palestinians across Israel,” in the Occupied Territories and “against Palestinian refugees and their descendants outside the territory.”
Last year, CAIR called on Congress to support “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act,” H.R. 2590, following the release of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing the Israeli government of committing crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians.
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 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 Coordinator Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com
