The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which blamed Israel for being attacked on Oct. 7, is calling on press freedom organizations to condemn Israel for, rather than investigate, a charge it calls “alleged.”
“Domestic and international organizations defending press freedom” should “speak out against the alleged torture of a Palestinian journalist by the far-right Israeli government,” CAIR stated.
The anti-Israel group noted that Diaa Al-Kahlout, a Gaza journalist for Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, alleges that he was tortured in Israeli detention for 33 days, including being denied medical treatment and being “hung from [sic] ceiling from his wrists so that his toes become off the ground.”
While the man was detained, “the soldiers made a barbecue feast for themselves during which they swore at the detainees and forced some of them to chant ‘long live Israel,’” CAIR added.
“If Diaa Al-Kahlout represented a Western media outlet, his alleged torture would rightly cause international outrage and calls for action,” stated Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR national communications director.
“But because of the systematic and decades-long dehumanization of Palestinians and the resulting denial of their human rights, the far-right Israeli government fears no repercussions from torturing and abusing a journalist,” Hooper said.
“We call on all organizations and entities defending press freedom in our nation and worldwide to speak out and hold Israel accountable for this torture of a journalist and for all the many war crimes it carries out on a daily basis in Gaza and the West Bank,” he added.
The Israel Prison Service referred questions to the Israel Defense Forces, which guards the facility. The IDF did not immediately respond to JNS.
