ICNA Declares Friday, October 13, 2023, As a Day of Du’a.

We call upon Khateebs, community Leaders and Politicians in the US to educate the community and all Americans about the dire humanitarian situation in Palestine and to pray for their safety, freedom, and well-being of all those including innocent civilians, women and children.

Here are some facts and the talking points to be discussed:

1. Netanyahu’s far-right government intensified Israel’s violent repression upon Palestinians since taking power earlier this year. Defense Minister of Israel called Palestinian as “animals”, denying them any food, electricity and water 

• Before the latest surge in violence, Israeli soldiers had already killed more than 250 Palestinians, including at least 47 children, in the occupied West Bank only in 2023, more than any year since the Second Intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s occupation in the early 2000s.

• Extremist Israeli settlers had also ramped up their attacks on Palestinians to push them off their land earlier this year. In August 2023, the UN warned of a dramatic increase in settler violence, with nearly 600 attacks recorded in the first six months of JUST THIS year, averaging 99 incidents each month.

• Israeli extremists have also increased their provocations in and around the Noble Sanctuary Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, which they wish to destroy.

2. Gaza has been under brutal Israeli military occupation for more than 50 years.

• Under international law, Gaza remains under Israeli military occupation, despite Israel’s withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from the interior of Gaza in 2005, it continues to control virtually all entry and exit, as well as Gaza’s airspace and coastline.

3. Israel has imposed a ruthless, illegal siege and naval blockade on Gaza for more than 15 years. The former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said, “People in Gaza are living under constant attacks and pressure in an open-air prison,”.

• More than 2.3 million Palestinians are in Gaza, trapped under Israel’s draconian siege and naval blockade, unable to travel to get medical treatment, go to school, or visit family and friends, deprived of basic needs and supplies. Gaza’s economy has been devastated by the siege and blockade, and by repeated Israeli military assaults that have destroyed much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The siege and blockade have been repeatedly condemned by the UN and human rights organizations as a form of collective punishment and illegal.

4. Most Palestinians in Gaza are refugees, expelled from what became southern Israel in 1948.

• Two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees who were expelled from their homes during Israel’s establishment in 1948, denied their internationally recognized legal right to return simply because they aren’t Jewish.

5. The source of the problem is Israel’s brutal military occupation and apartheid system that was established in 1948.

• In the words of Amnesty International: “Israel has established and maintained an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis – a system of apartheid – wherever it has exercised control over Palestinians’ lives since 1948.” The only way to end the violence is to end Israel’s occupation and apartheid system.

• Israel ‘can no longer control its own fate’ after stunning Palestinian attack Veteran Israeli analyst Meron Rapoport told MEE that the Israeli military and intelligence is at a new low, and it may prove terminal for Netanyahu and his settler government.

• Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said on Saturday that the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves against the “Israeli crimes and violations in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the Palestinian Territories”.

6. American Muslims urge all Muslim countries and their leadership, particularly those who are eager to build their relationships with the Zionist regime, to reconsider their plans and not compromise on the just cause of the oppressed Palestinians. 

7- We call upon the people of conscience to recognize the hypocritical stances of many nations when it comes to the human rights violations against the Palestinian people, and to condemn these senseless attacks.

8- Express support and the need for an immediate ceasefire. 

Finally – we ask Allah SWT for His help, guidance and support. May He free the oppressed people around the world, including people of Palestine, and prevent the oppression of the oppressors.

Ameen.