By Servet Gunerigok
WASHINGTON (AA) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, issued a statement Tuesday condemning the US veto of a UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.
"The American Muslim community is running out of words to describe our feelings about the Biden administration’s support for the Gaza genocide," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.
"The latest U.S. veto of a UN ceasefire resolution is shameful. President Biden should stop acting like Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense lawyer and start acting like the President of the United States," said Awad.
“We call on the American people to continue expressing their opposition to the Biden administration’s support for the Israeli government’s war crimes by contacting the White House and their elected officials and calling on them to demand a ceasefire, access to humanitarian aid, and the pursuit of a just, lasting peace.”
The draft resolution, put forward by Algeria, received widespread support in the UN Security Council, with 13 of its 15 member states voting in favor. The US was the only nation to vote against it, and as a permanent Council member, its opposition killed the resolution. The UK, another permanent member, abstained.
The US signaled its opposition Monday and put forward a competing draft resolution that called for “a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable.” But it failed to gain traction with diplomats. Tuesday's veto is the third the US has exercised to shield Israel from cease-fire calls.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in October, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.
The death toll from Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip has jumped to 29,195, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday.
Another 69,170 people have been injured so far.
About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught, while all of them are food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and less than half of aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.