New Jersey Muslim leaders again demand cease-fire in Gaza

With the Palestinian death toll from Israeli airstrikes now nearing 13,000 in Gaza, New Jersey’s Muslim leaders blasted federal and state lawmakers Tuesday for their failure to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, saying their silence has fueled a spike in Islamophobic incidents statewide.

At a morning press conference, leaders of the New Jersey chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, and the Palestinian American Community Center urged the Garden State’s politicians to condemn all hate and join mounting calls for a cease-fire.

Basma Bsharat of the Clifton-based Palestinian American Community Center said politicians’ statements supporting Israel will cost them at the polls. A Nov. 15 Reuters poll said 32% of respondents believe the United States should support Israel, down from 41% a week after the war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“There’s nothing humanitarian about pause. There’s nothing humanitarian about taking a break. We need to call this for what it is — it is a genocide,” Bsharat said. “We demand at bare minimum a cease-fire now and forever. You may be counting on us to get tired or to forget. But we’re not. Take this as a promise — we will not forgive, and we will not forget.”

CAIR-NJ executive director Selaedin Maksut said his office has fielded 200 reports of Islamophobia, including school bullying, airport incidents, and job discrimination, in the past six weeks — far higher than the two to four reports a week it normally receives.

The calls for a cease-fire came one day after state Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer (D-Somerset) filed a resolution in the Statehouse demanding the same.

“The targeting of civilians, no matter their faith or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law,” Jaffer wrote in the resolution. “This conflict is perpetuating a dangerous and costly lack of access to basic housing needs, compounding this health and humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at imminent risk if a cease-fire is not achieved and humanitarian aid is not delivered without delay.”

Reuters reported Tuesday that Hamas’ leader said a truce deal with Israel is close.

Jaffer also attended a rally Monday outside the Statehouse, where dozens demanded a cease-fire. She noted that Monday was World Children’s Day. The World Health Organization recently estimated 160 children are being killed every day in Gaza, while Unicef said Gaza “has become a graveyard for thousands of children.”

New Jersey residents have been personally affected, Jaffer added. She said she was driven to introduce her resolution because of Franklin Township school board member Sami Shaban, who has lost 17 relatives, including four children, to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since the war started Oct. 7.

“People here have lost members of their family already. With the violence continuing, we just want to see that stop. As a mother, my heart just breaks to see children suffering and so many children killed,” she said.

Jaffer, whose legislative colleagues haven’t joined her cause, also sent a letter to New Jersey’s federal representatives asking them to sign a federal House resolution urging President Biden to call for a cease-fire and facilitate de-escalation and humanitarian aid.

U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12) was among the 12 representatives who introduced the resolution Oct. 16. No other members of New Jersey’s congressional representatives have signed it, leading Wassim Kanaan, chairman of American Muslims for Palestine’s New Jersey chapter, to call the state’s elected leadership “absolutely shameful.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-05) has been one of Israel’s staunchest defenders in the House, both before and after the Oct. 7 attacks. In a statement Tuesday, he said any terrorist who commits atrocities must be held accountable “or they will strike again and be stronger.”

“America’s mission must be to get every hostage home, including all Americans, help our ally Israel defend herself and crush the terrorists, and provide much-needed humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinian civilians being used by Hamas as human shields,” Gottheimer said.