US Gov.t Must Condemn Israeli Murder of Journalists: Advocasy Group
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the US’ largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, on Suday called on the Biden administration to condemn the far-right Israeli government’s latest targeted murder of journalists in Gaza.
An Israeli air strike on a car on Sunday killed two Palestinian journalists out reporting, including Hamza Al-Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera’s chief correspondent in Gaza Wael Al-Dahdouh. He and a group of journalists were traveling to an area designated as a “humanitarian zone” by the Israeli army, but which continues to be bombed.
Wael Al-Dahdouh’s wife Amna, his grandchild Adam, his other 15-year-old son Mahmoud and seven-year-old daughter Sham were killed by Israel in October. At that time, an Israeli journalist admitted Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family was intentionally targeted, saying Israel knows its targets and “today the target was the family of the Al Jazeera journalist.”
An investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists reports at least 77 journalists and media workers were among the almost 23,000 people killed by Israel in Gaza since the war began.
Antoine Bernard from Reporters Without Borders said the attack, “would qualify as another war crime against journalists for Gaza.” “It’s a massive slaughter and this has to stop.”
There is growing domestic and international outrage over Israel’s mass killing in Gaza – mostly women and children – including hundreds of UN workers, journalists and medical personnel. One monitoring group estimates that more than 90,000 people, about 4 percent of the population in Gaza, are dead, wounded or missing. More than 10 children lose limbs every day in Gaza.
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said: “Each day we call on the Biden administration to speak out against Israel’s war crimes in Gaza – this time the latest targeted killings of journalists – yet all we hear from administration officials are denials of the obvious genocide taking place and actions in support of that genocide, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing.
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“The majority of Americans reject the Biden administration’s hypocritical and inhumane stance on the unfolding genocide in Gaza. It is time for President Biden to align his statements and actions with the will of the American people and call for an immediate ceasefire and a just and lasting peace.”
He noted that last year, CAIR welcomed an FBI investigation of the murder of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli military.
On Saturday, CAIR said the Biden administration must end its “complicity in the Netanyahu government’s genocide” after reports surfaced of Israeli desecration of Gaza cemeteries and civilian bodies scattered in the street.
On Friday, CAIR condemned the latest “Israeli war crimes of the day,” including reports of “torture camps” for detained Gazans, summary executions of Palestinian families and the deliberate targeting of healthcare workers.
The UN humanitarian chief is describing the Gaza Strip as “uninhabitable,” with almost 90 percent of the population displaced and facing Israeli-imposed starvation. Far-right Israeli government officials are openly calling for ethnic cleansing.
Last week, CAIR commended former Biden administration official Tariq Habash for his “courageous and principled” decision to resign in protest of President Biden’s support for ongoing war crimes against civilians in Gaza.
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Also last week, CAIR condemned White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby’s comments calling South Africa’s case at the UN’s top court accusing the Israeli government of genocide in Gaza “meritless.”
CAIR also condemned rumored plans to ship Palestinians expelled from Gaza by the far-right Israeli government’s genocidal actions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Source: Cair.com
