By CAIR
Photos: CAIR\YouTube Screenshots
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today applauded a call by the NAACP for President Joe Biden to “indefinitely” halt all weapons deliveries to Israel and to put pressure on Israel to end its genocide in Gaza.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said the following (in a Wednesday press statement) regarding the deadly conflict in Gaza:
“The NAACP has, and continues to express our profound sympathy to civilians whose lives have been unjustly impacted in the crossfire of conflict. What happened on October 7 was a tragedy, and it is our hope that those with loved ones still in captivity are reunited as expeditiously as possible.
As the nation’s leading civil rights organization, it is our responsibility to speak out in the face of injustice and work to hold our elected officials accountable for the promises they’ve made. Over the past months, we have been forced to bear witness to unspeakable violence, affecting innocent civilians, which is unacceptable. The most recent statement from the Biden administration is useful but does not go far enough. It is one thing to call for a ceasefire, it is another to take the measures necessary to work towards liberation for all. Decades of conflict reflect that factions inside Israel and Hamas actively work against resolution of the conflict. The latest proposal must clarify the consequences of continued violence. The United States and the international community must be willing to pull the levers of power when appropriate to advance liberation for all.
The Middle East conflict will only be resolved when the U.S. government and international community take action, including limiting access to weapons used against civilians. The NAACP calls on President Biden to draw the red line and indefinitely end the shipment of weapons and artillery to the state of Israel and other states that supply weapons to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. It is imperative that the violence that has claimed so many civilian lives, immediately stop. Hamas must return the hostages and stop all terrorist activity. Israel must commit to an offensive strategy that is aligned with International and Humanitarian laws. Peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians can only align when the humanity and common needs of people within the region are respected. Centuries of conflict reflect that violence results in more violence. The spillover effect in the United States is more racism, Anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia.”
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“We welcome this principled stance by the NAACP as recognition that civil and human rights are universal and should be honored in our nation and worldwide. As a Black American who received my first NAACP membership card before I was a teenager, I am deeply grateful that our community’s preeminent civil rights organization has called for an end to the transfer of U.S. weapons to the openly racist and genocidal Israeli government.
“This is a historic moment which shows that the attempts to smear and silence Black Americans who recognize Palestinian humanity is failing.”
Yesterday, CAIR called on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media companies to shut down a secret campaign by the far-right Israeli government to pressure Congress to continue the flow of taxpayer funds for its genocide in Gaza and called on President Biden to condemn the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR also called for international action after a report by Oxfam found that “85 percent of children did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey was conducted” and that thousands of displaced people are being forced to use one toilet.
