The IMAN Network and the Maryland office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called for Maryland’s political leaders to condemn in the strongest possible terms a prominent Netanyahu-backed Israeli TV producer Elad Barashi’s public call for a “Gaza Holocaust” and the use of gas chambers and train cars to eliminate the people of Gaza. IMAN and CAIR Maryland also calls for all elected officials, especially members of Congress, to demand an immediate end to the ongoing U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.
The influential producer’s shocking statements threaten to fully replicate the genocide of the Jewish community committed by Nazi Germany and risk inciting more violence and hatred amidst Israel’s ongoing U.S.-backed genocide of Palestinians occurring in Gaza.
SEE: Israeli TV producer calls for ‘Gaza holocaust, gas chambers’
Channel 14 is a prominent, influential far right media outlet in Israel that has been known to promote propaganda to bolster support for its genocide against Palestinians.
Barashi’s posts, which call for mass extermination of civilians, represents a dangerous public escalation in Israeli warmongers’ rhetoric that further dehumanizes Palestinian populations facing relentless bombing and forced starvation as experts sound an urgent alarm that Gaza has entered the final stage of catastrophic levels of food insecurity, classified as Phase Five on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which ranges from one (minimal) to five (famine).
The IPC is widely used by non-governmental organizations, charities, and aid agencies to assess food security and nutritional crises. Gaza has been declared in the highest category for weeks.
SEE: ‘Death of a generation’: Gaza infants battle starvation under deepening Israeli siege
This rhetoric is unequivocally unacceptable and such an escalation of the Gaza genocide would further shred international principles of human rights and the rule of law. The IMAN Network is calling on all Maryland leaders, particularly those in Congress, to categorically reject and publicly condemn these remarks, as well as U.S. support for the genocide in Gaza, and demand concrete action to end it. It is imperative that government leaders speak out against this hateful speech and uphold human rights and what semblance of international law remains.
In a statement, the groups jointly said:
“We are sounding the alarm and urgently calling on Maryland’s political leaders, especially members of Congress, to recognize that this is a pivotal moment in American and world history: the Israeli government is using American taxpayer dollars to slaughter and starve hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including children, as well as Israelis still held captive in Gaza. Within weeks, Israel’s radical, far-right government will escalate its genocide unless our political leaders take swift and decisive action to stop the genocide.
No person with sound moral values should endorse or tolerate statements invoking another Holocaust. Silence is complicity and future generations will judge where we stand in this moment. The IMAN Network stands with all those committed to peace, justice, and the protection of human rights including in Gaza, and we call on people of conscience to join us.”
The groups also condemn Florida Congressman Randy Fine’s May 2 statement in which he referred to a fellow member of Congress as a “Muslim terrorist” and responded to a photo of starving Palestinian civilians with the hashtag #StarveAway.
The Islamic Maryland Action Network (IMAN) is a statewide crisis response working group that represents over 350,000 Muslims in the state. Members include over two dozen mosques and Muslim organizations.
SEE: IMAN Network
The IMAN Network’s mission is to foster a coordinated, compassionate, and effective response to crises, uniting diverse Muslim communities across the state.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
END
CONTACT: IMAN Co-Founder and Justice For All DC Director Hena Zuberi, hena@justiceforall.org; IMAN Co-Founder and CAIR Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry, zchaudry@cair.com, 410-971-6062; IMAN Co-Founder Samya Mohammed, samyamohammad@gmail.com