(WASHINGTON, DC – 9/3/2024) – The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), the nation’s largest umbrella group of Muslim organizations, today said that the time is “now or never” for President Biden and Vice President Harris to force Israeli leader and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire that ends the Israeli government’s expanding genocide in Palestine, frees all hostages and political prisoners, averts an all-out regional war, and lays the groundwork for the pursuit of a just peace, including the end of the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine.
USCMO said that the Biden administration should force Netanyahu to end the genocide in Gaza and the ongoing destruction in the Occupied West Bank by upholding U.S. law requiring the imposition of an arms embargo on the Israeli military.
In a statement, USCMO Secretary-General Oussama Jammal said:
“It is long past time for President Biden and Vice President Harris to recognize that their steadfast financial, military, and diplomatic support for the Israeli government over the past four years despite its brazen war crimes, from the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh to the genocide in Gaza, has been a disastrous, illegal and immoral policy that must radically change.
“The time is now or never for the Biden administration to force Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire deal that ends the genocide in Gaza and the destruction of the Occupied West Bank, frees all hostages and political prisoners, arranges for the reconstruction of a Gaza free from blockade and occupation, and lays the groundwork for the swift end of the broader occupation of Palestine.
“If the Biden administration does not change course now, the Israeli government may fulfill its threat to destroy the Occupied West Bank just like it destroyed Gaza, make any just and peaceful resolution impossible, and continue trying to drag the United States into an all-out regional war. This is not a difficult choice. The Biden administration can uphold U.S. law, end genocide, and save both Palestinian and Israeli lives or continue down the same path that has led us to this point and cost so many lives.”
USMCO is calling on the Biden administration to impose total embargo on Israel of U.S. offensive weapons in compliance with U.S. National Security Memorandum (NSM-20), as UN reports have amply documented illegal Israeli airstrikes with U.S.-supplied weaponry and munitions that have killed at least 159 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank in recent months, which includes at least 29 boys and 3 women, in addition to the tens of thousands of men, women and children killed in Gaza.
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