Muslim advocacy teams say they ‘can not in good conscience’ be part of occasion as US defends Israel amid Gaza assaults.
Distinguished Muslim advocacy teams in the US are boycotting a White Home occasion on Sunday to have fun the Muslim vacation of Eid al-Fitr, saying the Biden administration “aids, abets and justifies” Israeli air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden will host a digital Eid celebration on Sunday to mark the top of the fasting month of Ramadan.
However as Israeli air raids proceed to pummel the Gaza Strip, killing at the least 188 Palestinians and injuring tons of of others, Muslim advocacy teams say the Biden administration’s current statements have failed to carry Israel accountable for the escalating violence.
“We can not in good conscience have fun Eid with the Biden Administration whereas it actually aids, abets and justifies the Israeli apartheid authorities’s indiscriminate bombing of harmless males, girls and youngsters in Gaza,” stated Nihad Awad, government director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a press release on Saturday.
“President Biden has the political energy and ethical authority to cease these injustices. We urge him to face on the facet of the victims and never the victimizer,” Awad stated.
CAIR had beforehand urged Muslims throughout the US to participate within the digital celebration, describing it as a “particular occasion”.
However criticism of the Biden administration has grown through the previous week because the violence in Gaza continues, with progressive US lawmakers, Palestine advocates and rights teams urging the US president to strain Israel to finish its navy offensive.
The Israeli navy started bombing the Gaza Strip final Monday after Israel’s plan to forcibly displace Palestinian households from occupied East Jerusalem and its assaults on Palestinian worshippers on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound spurred widespread protests in Jerusalem, the occupied West Financial institution and inside Israel.
Israeli air raids on Gaza have killed scores, destroyed roads, and flattened buildings, together with a tower that housed the workplaces of Al Jazeera and The Related Press.
In a name with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, Biden “reaffirmed his sturdy help for Israel’s proper to defend itself in opposition to rocket assaults from Hamas and different terrorist teams in Gaza”, the White Home stated in a press release.
“He condemned these indiscriminate assaults in opposition to cities and cities throughout Israel,” the read-out additionally acknowledged.
Critics have urged the Biden administration to strain Netanyahu and his authorities, to which the US gives $3.8bn in navy assist yearly, to place an finish to the navy operation.
However the Israeli prime minister on Sunday stated the offensive was “persevering with in full pressure” and “will take time”, the Reuters information company reported. A day earlier, Netanyahu thanked Biden for his “unequivocal help of Israel’s proper to defend itself”.
American Muslims for Palestine, a nationwide advocacy group, has known as for a boycott of the Biden administration’s Eid occasion on Sunday, as properly.
“A powerful rebuke of this callous response by the Biden administration is important. We won’t enable the White Home to use our holy Eid celebrations for political acquire on the expense of the Palestinian individuals,” the group stated.
In the meantime, hundreds of individuals protested in cities throughout the US over the weekend in help of Palestinians and to demand an finish to Washington’s unconditional backing of Israel.