For the last three weeks since the beginning of hostilities between Israel and Gaza following the Hamas Incursion into Southern Israel on October 7th, the stance adopted by US President Joe Biden, to offer unconditional backing to Israel in its mission to flatten Gaza and to support it in its programme of carpet bombing of innocent civilians, the blockading of all fuel, water, food and medical supplies, in contravention of international human rights law and the Geneva conventions, has stirred the rage and caused distress across the Democratic Party’s traditionally solid block of Muslim and Arab supporters.
Senior Muslim community leaders, advocates and religious leaders have publicly raised their voices to challenge the President’s backing of Israel’s ‘massacre of the innocents’ in Gaza with total impunity. But in the last few days, Biden’s open attempt to discredit the death toll data produced by the Gaza Ministry of Health, has removed any doubts in their minds as to where the President stands.
Anger at US President’s questioning of Gaza death toll data
The Gaza Health Ministry was forced to produce a 222 page report, which included names, ID numbers and other pertinent information of over 7,000 civilians – 3,000 of which were children, whose lives had been taken during the Israeli onslaught. The report further noted that an additional 900 mostly children remained unaccounted for and likely still buried beneath the rubble.
The Washington Post reported Saturday, that ‘a senior Arab American White House staffer responsible for engagement with concerned communities’, had confirmed that a series of high level meetings were being held with Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans ‘to discuss the Whitehouse response’. In a statement issued by the White House spokesperson, Robyn Paterson on Friday, he said the administration is:
‘reaching out to hear directly from members of Muslim, Arab American and Palestinian American communities. We’ll continue to engage in conversations with these important communities and to be unequivocal in condemning hate and discrimination against them’
Whitehouse hurriedly organises crisis meetings to gauge the temperature of disquiet
There have been reports of so called ‘temperature-taking meetings’ in the White House and ‘listening sessions’ with senior administration officials, including senior staff from Intelligence Agency, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services departments. Participants apparently spoke openly and often in tears about endangered family members in the Middle East and of their feelings of being isolated and under suspicion in their government jobs. Many spoke of feeling complicit in the administration’s support for Israel’s continued assault and siege with impunity on Gaza. In one meeting in which at least 70 staffers were present, the majority confirmed that they had either a direct or indirect connection to somebody in Gaza.
A meeting arranged at the White House on Thursday, seen by many as merely a ticking box process, was the subject of some controversy as Muslim commentators responded by saying that they were troubled not by who was invited, but more by who wasn’t. It was effectively branded a meeting of the ‘usual suspects’ as invitees included the Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison (the first Muslim elected to congress),Rami Nashashibi, the founder of the Chicago based ‘Inner–City Muslim Network’ and the Washington interfaith Imam, Wa’el Alzayat , CEO of Muslim Lobbying group Emgage. There was only one Palestinian American present and an other Palestinian American who had originally been invited and had lost dozens of relatives as a result of Israel’s bombing for which he had been outspoken and critical of the US response, was subsequently disinvited.
Keith Ellison later reported that:
‘We said, Palestinians are dying. We’re not okay with the numbers of their dead being disputed…Muslim community leaders told President Biden that the suffering of innocent Gazans trying to survive in extremely difficult circumstances has actually increased the likelihood of Islamophobic attacks in the United States. The President listened carefully, responded sincerely, and showed empathy and compassion for the suffering of everyone. I am hopeful he will act on that empathy’
A high profile Muslim Professor of comparative human development at the University of Chicago, Eman Abdelhadi, wrote on her twitter post:
‘It’s really crazy to me that the Democratic party destroyed 20 years…worth of good will with Muslims and Arabs in just two weeks, losing an entire generation that was raised in the progressive coalition, possibly forever’
Muslim community groups declare Biden’s remarks as ‘dangerous’
Muslim Umbrella organisations and advocacy groups have publicly declared Biden’s remarks about the death toll as ‘dangerous’, with some prominent figures stating that the President had lost their vote in the next election.
Council for American Islamic Relations calls for the US government to ‘stop dehumanising Palestinian civilians’
The Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington, D.C., called on the Biden administration:
‘to stop dehumanising Palestinian civilians and justifying their deaths and casting doubt on the number of Palestinians killed’
CAIR also reported a spike in hate crimes against Muslims, Islamophobic, Anti-Palestinian Rhetoric in the Workplace. CAIR was even forced to relocate a major annual fundraising dinner in Northern Virginia to an undisclosed location, after it received a bombing threat last week. Referring to the spike in threats and hate crimes against Muslims, it said :
‘The number of complaints is the largest wave it has seen since December 2015, after Donald Trump declared his intent to ban Muslims from the U.S’
Ibrahim Hooper, The CAIR, National Communications Director, and spokesperson, announced that from Monday 30th October,
‘The Maryland office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) will hold emergency peaceful protests at the offices of elected officials in that state to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, where thousands of children, women and men have been killed by indiscriminate Israeli bombardment’
Hooper also announced that upwards of 250,000 Americans had used the CAIR congressional action alert to:
‘to urge Congress, to support a ceasefire in response to war crimes, including genocide, in Gaza by Israel’
