CAIR Welcomes World Court Order for Israel to End its Forced Starvation in Gaza
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously ordering Israel’s far-right government to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay in Gaza. The judges said in their order: “The court observes that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine…but that famine is setting in.” The new measures were requested by South Africa as part of its ongoing case accusing Israel genocide in Gaza. In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said: “The far-right Israeli government continues to ignore all international laws and orders by world bodies demanding that it end its genocidal campaign of slaughter, starvation and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. “It is able to ignore international demands because it has acted with impunity against the rights of the Palestinian people for decades, safe in its belief that the United States will not allow any substantive action to be taken in response to its denial of Palestinian human rights and dignity. “The time of Israeli impunity is fading away as people worldwide see what the Palestinian people have experienced: a government that is determined to erase the Palestinian existence so that it can illegally lay claim to their land.” He noted that there are miles-long lines of trucks carrying relief supplies being blocked from entering Gaza by Israeli authorities. Earlier this week, CAIR said a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine stating there are “reasonable grounds” to assert that the far-right Israeli government is engaged in a genocide in Gaza should spur international action for a permanent ceasefire and justice for the Palestinian people. Yesterday, CAIR called on the United Nations to investigate video aired by Al Jazeera Arabic showing Israeli forces shooting dead two apparently unarmed Palestinians as they walked in an open area along the Gaza coast. Also yesterday, CAIR thanked a U.S. State Department official working on human rights issues in the Middle East who resigned in protest of U.S. support for the far-right Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza. CAIR said that a new Gallup poll revealing that a majority of Americans disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza represents the latest “wake-up call” for President Biden to call for an immediate ceasefire and hold Israeli officials to account for crimes against humanity in Gaza. END 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 |
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