July 11, 2006

The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a national coalition of 11 major American Muslim organizations, today said Israel's continued targeting of the Palestinian civilian infrastructure is a "war crime" that should be condemned by the Bush administration.

In its statement, the coalition said:

"The Israeli army has been waging a full-fledged war against the Palestinian population, killing scores of civilian men, women and children. These crimes followed an unprecedented act of kidnapping dozens of democratically-elected Palestinian officials and cabinet ministers, including the deputy prime minister. Such acts are nothing short of state-terror.

"The American Muslim Task Force calls on the Bush administration to strongly condemn these war crimes and demand that Israel stop using American taxpayer-funded weapons to carry out attacks that will only serve to intensify the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.

"Israeli aggression against a defenseless civilian population is also a violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which mandates that American weapons can only be used for defensive purposes and not for violations of human rights. The State Department has documented human rights violations by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians in its annual report.

"We also believe that any attempt to solve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict must be based on the full implementation of all relevant U.N. resolutions, particularly 194, 242, and 338, return of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian lands currently occupied by Israel, and the establishment of a viable, independent and sovereign state of Palestine.

"The international community must not allow the Israeli government to use this crisis to remove the democratically-elected Palestinian government and thus strike a devastating blow to the nascent democratic process in the region."

AMT members and affiliates endorsing this statement include: American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Muslim Student Association-National (MSA-N), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), Project Islamic Hope (PIH), and United Muslims of America (UMA).

[CONTACT: Dr. Agha Saeed, 510-299-9313, aghaksaeed@yahoo.com; Edina Lekovic, 213-383-3443, communications@mpac.org]