US Justice Department Urged to Probe Israeli Killings of Americans
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Sunday repeated its call for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate and prosecute the Israeli officials, soldiers and illegal settlers responsible for committing violent crimes against Palestinian-Americans, including a 14-year-old US teen reportedly murdered earlier in the day by illegal Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank.
Palestinian-American teen Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, was reportedly shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler at the entrance to Turmus Ayya.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“Every hour of every day, Palestinians – including Palestinian-Americans – are subjected to injury, death or expulsion from their homes and land by the far-right Israeli government and its racist supporters, all with the complicity of our own government. If the Trump administration really wants to put ‘America first,’ its first duty is to protect the lives of American citizens. The Department of Justice must act to investigate this and all other murders and attacks targeting Palestinian-Americans. Those responsible must be brought to justice.”
Awad, who is himself Palestinian-American, noted that to date, no administration has ever held Israel, Israeli soldiers, or illegal settlers accountable for killing, or injuring American citizens of Palestinian heritage.
Last year, CAIR called on the DOJ to investigate and prosecute the Israeli officials, soldiers and illegal settlers responsible for committing violent crimes against Palestinian-Americans, including the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and Turkish-American peace activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in the Occupied West Bank.
Also last year, CAIR said then Secretary of State Antony Blinken should resign after reports that he ended the investigation into the Israel military’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for war crimes and human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, including the killing of 80-year-old Palestinian American Omar Assad.
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CAIR also joined more than 60 national organizations in a letter to members of Congress urging them to support US Representative Andre Carson’s Justice for Shireen Act (H.R. 3477), which would require the FBI and US State Department to publicly report on the circumstances surrounding Shireen Abu Akleh’s death.
In 2003, CAIR called for a suspension of aid to Israel after an Israeli bulldozer crushed American activist Rachel Corrie to death as she protested the destruction of a Palestinian home.
Source: Cair.com
