The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Biden administration to strongly condemn a “provocation” by Israel’s new far-right government targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has a long history of racist incitement, was escorted to the mosque site this morning by his bodyguards and police.
“Benjamin Netanyahu's national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is a far-right extremist, a genocidal racist and a terrorist sympathizer," said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell. "The Biden administration should strongly condemn the Netanyahu government's attempts to incite racial and religious conflict at one of the most sacred and sensitive places in the world."
He added that last month, CAIR called on the Biden administration to stand up to a new Israeli government composed of openly racist and genocidal far-right politicians.
The Associated Press reported last year that Ben Gvir once displayed in his home a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli who killed 29 Palestinians and wounded over 100 in a shooting attack as they knelt in prayer at Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1993.
In 2007, Ben Gvir was convicted of supporting a terror organization and inciting racism. He recently demanded that the Israeli government pass legislation ending a ban on individuals who incite to racism serving as lawmakers.
Last year, CAIR welcomed an investigation by a UN commission of inquiry into the Israeli government’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.
In an open letter, five former European ministers labeled Israel’s policies against Palestinians as “the crime of apartheid.” Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Presbyterian Church USA have recently labeled Israel an apartheid state. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing also recognized that Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians.
