Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-PkS
CAPITOL HILL, Washington, D.C., United States — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has sent a letter to every U.S. Senate office urging them to speak out against the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza. The letter was prompted by the now-iconic image of five-year-old Ward al-Sheikh, who was filmed crying out for her family as flames engulfed the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City — moments after an Israeli airstrike killed at least 36 displaced Palestinians sheltering there, including 18 children.
CLICK HERE: READ CAIR’S LETTER
Ward survived but her mother and five siblings were killed in the bombing. Her father and remaining brother remain in critical condition. The image of her silhouetted against the fire has drawn comparisons to the famous 1972 photo of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, known as the “Napalm Girl,” which helped shift American public opinion during the Vietnam War.
In the letter, CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw wrote in part:
This week, another heartbreaking image emerged from the rubble of Gaza: footage of a five-year-old girl trying to escape a wall of flames after the Israeli government bombed a U.N. school shelter, burning most of her family alive.
The Netanyahu government’s bombing of the school in Gaza City killed at least 36 civilians, 18 of them children. The young girl seen above, Ward Al-Sheikh, was filmed silhouetted against flames as she called out for her family. Her mother and five siblings were killed. Her father and remaining brother are clinging to life in critical condition. She alone remains to mourn.
Although the violence inflicted upon this young girl is hardly unique in Gaza, the image of her has struck the global conscience. Many are comparing it to the 1972 photograph of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, known as the “Napalm Girl,” whose raw terror exposed the brutality and folly of continued U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. That image helped turn a nation against war. Ward’s story carries the same weight today.
More than 54,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly women and children, have now been killed in Gaza. Countless hostages have been killed in the Israeli bombing campaign, and at least three were shot dead by Israeli soldiers while shirtless and waving white flags. Thousands of Palestinians are buried beneath the rubble. This is not warfare, it is a campaign of genocidal destruction enabled by American weapons and paid for with American taxpayer dollars.
U.S. law clearly prohibits sending military aid to governments that block humanitarian assistance or to foreign military units credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights. The Netanyahu government is clearly and openly committing such war crimes. These laws must be enforced, not ignored.
We encourage your office to:
Condemn the Netanyahu government for this ongoing genocide.
Demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Pledge to oppose all military assistance and weapons transfers to Israel until its human rights abuses end.
Support the full restoration of U.S. funding to UNRWA and all vital humanitarian operations.
Ward al-Sheikh should not be remembered as the face of our inaction. Let her be remembered as the child who woke the world up, before it was too late.
CAIR continues to call on Congress, the White House, and the global community to halt U.S. complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza and to take immediate steps to stop the mass killing of civilians. (√)
_________
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