HOUSTON, United States
US Muslim groups have expressed outrage over President Joe Biden’s dismissal of the Palestinian death toll in Israel’s relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip.
“To hear the president, with all the proof that exists, deny solid numbers of the death toll is dehumanizing to us as Palestinian Americans,” said Ayah Ziyadeh, advocacy director at American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
Just last week, when the Gaza Health Ministry released statistics that the death toll was more than 6,500, Biden shrugged off those numbers.
It has now crossed 9,000, including over 6,000 women and children.
Over 32,000 Palestinians have also been injured in Israeli attacks, while an estimated 1.4 million more have been displaced.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden said on Oct. 25.
“(But) I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
Ziyadeh told Anadolu that for Biden to deny the death toll provided by the Gaza Health Ministry is “disturbing,” especially since the UN verified the casualties.
“It makes me feel absolutely disturbed and disgusted, especially for a president who says he stands up for human rights,” said Ziyadeh.
“I don’t think there’s even a word to describe what it feels like, to be honest. It’s like getting stabbed in the back."
With the Israeli military conducting thousands of airstrikes on Gaza, in addition to ground incursions, the AMP said it is unreasonable to deny the fact that thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed.
“There is no gray area. It’s black and white. You’re either on the side of the oppressor or on the side of the oppressed,” Ziyadeh said.
“Israel is committing war crimes and violating international law. They’re engaging in genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and collective punishment. It’s gut-wrenching.”
Ziyadeh said 2.2 million Palestinians are already “under siege” and require 440 humanitarian trucks on a daily basis to provide them with much-needed aid.
However, these trucks cannot even make it to their destinations because the pathways to get them there have been bombed and shut down, she said.
“The occupier controls everything on a daily basis: water, food, electricity, fuel,” said Ziyadeh.
“War crimes are being committed against them year-round. We’re frustrated, angry and disheartened.”
‘Funding war crimes’
The AMP is outraged that the US is standing by Israel despite its atrocities against innocent Palestinians.
“Israel receives $3.8 billion of military aid annually from the US, unconditionally,” said Ziyadeh.
“We have always known they have funded war crimes, trying to blame Hamas for what Israel is actually doing, which is committing genocide. And the US continues to stand by Israel even though the facts are clear.”
Ziyadeh added that US lawmakers from the federal, state and local levels are just as much to blame as Biden for allowing Israel to commit these war crimes.
“Biden has clearly shown us that his moral compass only exists for Israel and the Western value of human life, but the majority of our elected officials – from Congress to state assemblies to city councils – also do not have a moral compass,” she said.
“They see Palestinians as subhuman. They do not care about us. Our government is not representing us. They’re pledging allegiance to the state of Israel, not to their constituents, which gives us a sense of frustration, futility and hopelessness.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US’ largest Muslim civil rights advocacy group, also denounced Biden’s “shocking and dehumanizing” remarks, urging himto both apologize and condemn the Israel’s ongoing siege targeting and killing innocent Palestinians.
“It’s mind-boggling, the moral bankruptcy of the president,” said Hussam Ayloush, chief executive officer of CAIR’s California chapter.
“Biden can’t claim ignorance, even if he assumes the numbers are exaggerated,” Ayloush told Anadolu.
“Is 2,000 children being killed okay versus 3,000, or is the president saying that it’s okay if it’s not above 5,000? Are there a certain number of deaths that are enough? Are there enough babies we can kill that will guide and drive our policies to justify the collective punishment being carried out on innocent people? What is a number that will awaken his conscience?”
Ayloush decried the “offensive and insensitive” position Biden has taken, and said the president is more than just an innocent bystander.
“At one point, people were accusing Biden of being complicit in the genocide that has been taking place by Israel,” said Ayloush.
“At this point we are beyond that. Biden and the US government are accomplices to genocide. We are aiding and abetting Israel in the war crimes against the people of Gaza. We are supporting it and fueling it instead of acknowledging and stopping the human cost of this war.”
He said any apology from Biden today “would truly be useless.”
“What would it do? Would it bring back the innocent people who have already lost their lives to these atrocious war crimes?” he said.
‘Western world’s rewriting of history’
Ayloush said Biden’s current stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict is a reflection of his administration’s policies that have continually dehumanized the Palestinian people.
“The president has made it loud and clear where he stands on genocide," said Ayloush.
“He is not a spectator. He is not an accomplice. He’s a partner. Our government is a partner in this ongoing campaign for war crimes and genocide against the people of Gaza.”
Ayloush explained that the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas were not the beginning of the war.
“To claim that the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas was unprovoked is a continuation of the Western world’s rewriting of history and hiding the context of Israel’s brutal occupation,” said Ayloush.
“This has been an occupation by Israel which has subjected the Palestinian people to genocide, ethnic cleansing, murder, abuse and land-grabbing for 75 years.”
Ayloush said Israel’s reasoning that the current attack on Gaza is a war against Hamas is a blatant lie.
“You send your troops to the battlefield, (you do) not bombard and drop heavy-duty missiles on residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and refugee shelters and claim that this is a war on Hamas,” he said.
“This is one of the biggest lies in our current history. This is nothing but collective punishment with the deliberate intent of causing as much death and damage as possible to the people of Gaza.”
He emphasized that the “numbers speak for themselves” as “more than 80% of the victims have been women, children, the elderly, the disabled and unarmed men.”
“Israel knows that and the Biden administration knows that. When almost every casualty is civilian, is it collateral damage or are these innocent people the real target of the war?” he said.
Ayloush said the Biden administration should be calling for a cease-fire instead of continuing to fund and fuel Israel’s attacks.
“Undoing the damage starts with ending the occupation and allowing Palestinians their right to freedom, self-determination, equal rights to be citizens and the freedom to live on their own land,” he said.
“Don’t blame the victims. We must end the root cause of this injustice and end Israel’s occupation.”
