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For Immediate Release
September, 23 2021, 11:02am EDT
Contact:
Janessa Sambola-Harris, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, sambolaharris@
Lacy Crawford, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, lcrawford@
Angelo Greco, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, angelo@
Civil Rights Organizations Respond to Congressional Failure on Policing Reform
WASHINGTON
Leading civil rights organizations released the following joint statement after bipartisan negotiations around the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act were ended:
"It is absolutely unacceptable that more than a year after George Floyd was killed and millions took to the streets worldwide to demand an end to police brutality and the systemic criminalization of Black and Brown communities, congressional leaders failed to deliver meaningful legislation that would begin to address this nation's longstanding history of violent, discriminatory policing. The determination and commitment of Senator Cory Booker and Congresswoman Karen Bass to work across the aisle to reach a consensus on this critical civil rights legislation are much appreciated.
"In the 2020 election, voters came out in record numbers to support candidates who promised meaningful police accountability. We urge leaders at all levels of government, especially the 117th Congress and the Biden administration, to find pathways to advance policy measures that will hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct and transform policing practices and policies. We will continue to fight and advocate for legislation worthy of George Floyd's name. That must include measures to end qualified immunity; prohibit racial profiling; strengthen the ability of the Department of Justice to bring criminal civil rights actions against officers; create a national registry of police misconduct complaints; end the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement; and restrict funds from law enforcement agencies that do not prohibit the use of chokeholds and other restrictive maneuvers.
"To meet this moment, we demand transformative change that will keep our families and communities safe and end the systemic racism that permeates our criminal legal system."
This statement was signed by the following organizations:
Wade Henderson, interim president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Damon Hewitt, president and executive director, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Derrick Johnson, president and CEO, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF)
Reverend Al Sharpton, president and founder, National Action Network
Melanie Campbell, president and CEO, The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, The Black Women's Roundtable
Johnetta Betsch Cole, national chair and president, National Council of Negro Women
Marc H. Morial, president and CEO, National Urban League
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
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After 9 Months of 'Israel's Abuse,' US Teen Mohammed Ibrahim Freed From Detention
While expressing relief, the 16-year-old's uncle noted the "hundreds of children like Mohammed, unjustly trapped in an Israeli military prison."
Nov 27, 2025
"Words can't describe the immense relief we have as a family right now," said Zeyad Kadur, the uncle of Mohammed Ibrahim, the 16-year-old Palestinian-American who was finally released on Thursday after over nine months in Israeli detention.
In February, Israeli forces arrested the Florida resident, then 15, at a family home in the illegally occupied West Bank over allegations that he threw rocks at Israeli settlers. Ibrahim's release follows a monthslong pressure campaign from his relatives, rights groups, and American lawmakers, who have specifically urged President Donald Trump to demand the US citizen's freedom.
"Israeli soldiers had no right to take Mohammed from us in the first place," said Kadur. "For more than nine months, our family has been living a horrific and endless nightmare, particularly Mohammed's mother and father, who haven't been able to see or touch their youngest child for nearly a year, all while knowing Israeli soldiers were beating him and starving him."
"We couldn't believe Mohammed was free until his parents wrapped their arms around him and felt him safe," he continued. "Right now, we are focused on getting Mohammed the immediate medical attention he needs after being subjected to Israel's abuse and inhumane conditions for months. We just want Mohammed to be healthy and to have his childhood back."
According to the Guardian, which first exposed Ibrahim's case in July: "Relatives said he was taken to a hospital for intravenous therapy and blood work immediately after his release, and noted he is severely underweight, pale, and is still suffering from scabies contracted during his detention. Ibrahim had lost a quarter of his body weight in detention, his family said."
Kadur said Thursday that "we'd like to thank the more than a hundred organizations, local Florida community members, volunteers, and members of Congress who continued to speak up for Mohammed and demand his immediate freedom. We are also deeply grateful to the countless people who refused to stop telling Mohammed's story, and to those who called their representatives every single day to demand they act to free him. Thank you for bringing Mohammed's story to the American people and the world."
The uncle added:
There are hundreds of children like Mohammed, unjustly trapped in an Israeli military prison, being subjected to Israel's abuse and torture. No mother, father, parent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or child should ever have to go through what Mohammed just went through. As we support Mohammed and are beyond relieved he is free, we will continue to demand justice for Sayfollah Musallet, an American and Mohammed's first cousin, who was beaten to death and murdered by a mob of Israeli settlers on July 11, 2025. We expect the American government to protect our families.
Mohammed was forced to spend his 16th birthday unjustly imprisoned by Israel, separated from the people who love him. Now that Mohammed is with his family, we can finally wish him a happy birthday. His mom, Muna, can prepare his favorite meal and be with her son. We are proud of Mohammed and love him dearly. The family requests time to be with their son after this painful experience.
The Institute for Middle East Understanding shared Kadur's statement and also called for justice for Musallet.
Ibrahim's freedom came as people in the United States celebrated Thanksgiving.
"Something to be thankful for today: Mohammed Ibrahim freed from captivity," wrote Drop Site News' Ryan Grim on social media.
US Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) similarly said, "On a day of thanksgiving we are so grateful Mohammed Ibrahim is on his way home."
Robert McCaw, government affairs director at the largest US Muslim rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement that "Mohamed’s homecoming is a blessing, but it does not erase the torture and suffering he endured."
"The US government has a responsibility to investigate Israel's abuse of an American citizen and ensure that no other child—American or Palestinian—is subjected to the same treatment," McCaw added.
The US government provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually, and has continued to do so over the past two years, as Israeli forces have waged a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip—a genocide that "is not over," despite last month's ceasefire agreement, as Amnesty International highlighted in a Thursday briefing. Amid that assault, there has also been a surge in Israeli soldiers' and settlers' violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
"Mohammed should have spent this year studying for his learner's permit and enjoying time with his family—not locked in a military prison, beaten, starved, and terrified. His release is cause for celebration, but it must also be a turning point," said CAIR's Florida chapter. "The US cannot continue providing unchecked support to a government that tortures American children."
"CAIR and CAIR-FL are calling on the US State Department, members of Congress, faith leaders, and civil society organizations to press for a full, public accounting of Mohammed's treatment and to demand concrete consequences for the Israeli officials responsible," the group added. "The organizations also reaffirm their commitment to supporting Mohamed and his family as he recovers from the trauma of his imprisonment and to advocating for all children subjected to abuse under Israel's military system."
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Librarians and Publishers Alarmed as Tennessee Libraries Shut Down for GOP 'Book Purge'
"It is illegal to remove books from public libraries because some people do not like them," said a coalition of 33 library groups, publishing companies, and civil rights organizations.
Nov 27, 2025
Public libraries in Tennessee have begun to shut down as they carry out an order from state officials to remove children's books containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters.
For Popular Information, Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims reported Tuesday that the "book purge" is required to be carried out at all 181 libraries in the Tennessee Regional Library System, which encompasses most of the state, aside from cities like Nashville and Memphis.
It comes after Tennessee's Republican Secretary of State, Tre Hargett, sent a pair of letters earlier this fall. The first, sent on September 8, said that in order to receive state and federal grants, which run through his office, libraries needed to comply with a Tennessee law banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices from agencies, as well as President Donald Trump's executive order on "gender ideology," which effectively ended the federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary individuals.
As the report notes, neither of these orders says anything about library books. However, Hargett argued that compliance with the executive order mandated book bans because it states that "federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.”
Not only do executive orders typically not apply to state and local governments, but the federal funds Tennessee's libraries receive are not used to purchase books at all. Instead, according to the secretary of state's website, they “provide all state residents with online access to essential library and information resources, including licensed databases, a statewide library catalog and interlibrary loan system, bibliographic services, and materials for the disadvantaged.”
The Every Library Institute, an advocacy group that supports federal funding for libraries, said that Hargett's instructions "contain significant errors, likely exceeding the secretary’s authority and reflecting a political agenda rather than a neutral or accurate interpretation of federal or state law."
"Hargett is setting a dangerous precedent by placing Tennessee’s state and municipal government under the authority of any executive order by any president," the group continued. "Executive orders are not laws."
But Crosby and Sims argued: "Even if the executive order did apply to Tennessee local libraries, simply having books with LGBTQ stories and characters does not constitute 'promoting gender ideology.' The classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood involves a wolf eating a little girl, but does not promote violence. Children’s books are stories, not instruction manuals."
On October 27, Hargett sent another letter, giving libraries 60 days to undertake an "age appropriateness review" of all books in their children's section to find any books that may be inconsistent either with Tennessee's age appropriateness law or with Trump's executive order.
As Ken Paulson, the director of Middle Tennessee University's Free Speech Center, noted, the age appropriateness law, which was last updated in 2024, "is modeled after obscenity laws and prohibits nudity, excessive violence, and explicit sexuality, hardly the stuff of children’s sections. Further, the law applies to school libraries, not public libraries."
Though Hargett provided no criteria for how to assess what books would need to be purged, he did provide an example of one he felt violated both orders: Fred Gets Dressed, a 2021 picture book by the New York Times bestselling author Peter Brown. As Popular Information noted:
The book, which was written by a straight, cisgender man, does not feature any LGBTQ characters. Instead it is based on a childhood experience of the author in which he tried on his mother’s clothing and makeup. If a book about a boy trying on his mother’s clothes is the strongest example of “promoting gender ideology” that Hargett could identify, it raises questions about the necessity of the review.
Earlier this month, the state's Rutherford County Library System, which serves the cities of Smyrna and Murfreesboro, shut down several of its library branches for up to a week to “meet new reporting requirements" from Hargett's office.
It's unclear why the Rutherford County system determined it needed to shut down in order to carry out the review, nor has it been made clear whether other library systems will be expected to do the same.
As former librarian Kelly Jensen noted for the blog Book Riot, the Rutherford County system has made its own efforts to ban transgender-friendly books, but backed off from the policy earlier this summer for fear of litigation after a Murfreesboro law branding "homosexuality" as a form of "public indecency" resulted in the city being forced to settle a lawsuit for $500,000.
Kelly wrote that for Rutherford library system's board, Hargett's order is "a convenient means of subverting their fears of litigation, which drove them to change their anti-trans book policy earlier this summer. If the directive is from the state, then they 'have to' comply. The Tennessee secretary of state is granting permission slips to public library boards to ban away."
This week, a group of 33 major publishers, library advocacy groups, and free speech and civil rights organizations signed onto a letter to Hargett expressing "profound concern" over its review mandate.
The coalition included PEN America, the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the transgender rights advocacy organization GLAAD. Major publishing houses also signed on, including Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.
"These types of reviews create immense administrative burdens for library systems and often lead to illegal censorship, which raises liability risks for local communities and the state," the groups said. "Many libraries, uncertain about the legal and procedural basis for the mandate, have had to redirect limited resources, with some temporarily closing branches to complete these reviews, which are implied to be necessary for future funding."
"The demands in your letter need immediate clarification, as it is not reasonable to expect libraries to follow directives that would risk violating applicable law, including the US Constitution," they added. "It is illegal to remove books from public libraries because some people do not like them. This is a well-settled legal principle."
The Rutherford County Library Alliance, which has challenged municipal anti-LGBTQ+ laws as well as the censorship policies of the library's own board, said that “we have seen firsthand the concrete harm of the Secretary’s directives—library closures during story time, intimidation of professional librarians, and the breakdown of democratic representation in our public library system."
"We hope Secretary Hargett will fulfill their duty to promote library development by supporting our constitutionally-guaranteed rights and our highly trained librarians," the alliance added, "rather than enabling censorship from 0.001% of our community for 100% of our community.”
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'Genocide Is Not Over,' Amnesty Leader Says as Israel Keeps Bombing Gaza
"So far, there is no indication that Israel is taking serious measures to reverse the deadly impact of its crimes and no evidence that its intent has changed."
Nov 27, 2025
Underscoring the conclusion of a new Amnesty International briefing, Middle East Eye reported Thursday that "Israeli aircraft launched a series of raids on the al-Tuffah and al-Shuja'iyya neighborhoods, east of Gaza City," and conducted strikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that took effect on October 10.
Gaza medical sources said that as of Wednesday, at least 69,799 Palestinians had been killed and another 170,972 injured since Israel launched a genocidal assault after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack—though global researchers have warned the actual toll is likely far higher. Since the ceasefire began last month, Israeli forces have killed at least 352 people and injured 896.
"The ceasefire risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general, in a Thursday statement. "But while Israeli authorities and forces have reduced the scale of their attacks and allowed limited amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the world must not be fooled. Israel's genocide is not over."
"Israel has inflicted devastating harm on Palestinians in Gaza through its genocide, including two years of relentless bombardment and deliberate systematic starvation," she continued. "So far, there is no indication that Israel is taking serious measures to reverse the deadly impact of its crimes and no evidence that its intent has changed. In fact, Israeli authorities are continuing their ruthless policies, restricting access to vital humanitarian aid and essential services, and deliberately imposing conditions calculated to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza."
“The ceasefire must not become a smokescreen for Israel's ongoing genocide."
Amnesty's new briefing similarly states that "Israeli authorities are still committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, by continuing to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction."
"Israel severely restricts the entry of supplies and the restoration of services essential for the survival of the civilian population—including nutritious food, medical supplies, and electricity—as well as stringently limiting medical evacuations," said the human rights group, which first declared the assault a genocide in December 2024, joining scholars and observers around the world.
The briefing details:
Israeli authorities continue to prohibit the entry of equipment and material necessary to repair life-sustaining infrastructure and required to remove unexploded ordnance, contaminated rubble, and sewage, all of which pose serious and potentially irreversible public health and environmental damage.
The systemic expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and what was once the most arable land continues, with Israeli military deployed across 58% of the Gaza Strip. This expulsion risks becoming permanent.
As Common Dreams reported on Wednesday, a new Trump administration plan to temporarily house Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied parts of Gaza in "residential compounds" that they may not be allowed to leave is being condemned as "concentration camps within a mass concentration camp."
Callamard noted that "Palestinians remain held within less than half of the territory of Gaza, in the areas least capable of supporting life," and pointed to decisions from the United Nations' top tribunal, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
"Still today, even after repeated warnings by international bodies, three sets of legally binding orders by the ICJ, and two ICJ advisory opinions, and despite Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, both as an occupying power and as a party to an armed conflict, Israel deliberately continues not to provide or allow necessary supplies to reach the civilian population in Gaza," she said.
Although Israel faces a genocide case at the ICJ, there have been "no prosecutions or investigations of acts of genocide by the Israeli authorities, at least none that has been publicly disclosed or acknowledged," the briefing highlights. "On the contrary, atrocity crimes committed against Palestinians, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and other ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees, continue to receive high-level political support in Israel and within the military ranks."
"Not only has the level of dehumanization of Palestinians seen no decline post-ceasefire and the return of the hostages, but new death penalty legislation has been proposed which in its current wording means that it would be primarily applied against Palestinians," the publication states. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, gave the bill its first green light earlier this month.
"Israel also continues to prevent access to the Gaza Strip to international forensic experts and investigators, including international justice and UN-mandated mechanisms, as well as international human rights organizations, and international media," the document adds. "This effectively prevents the collection of time-sensitive evidence that would be essential to pursue accountability and provide redress to victims and survivors."
Callamard called on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a fugitive of the International Criminal Court—to "lift its inhumane blockade and ensure unfettered access to food, medicine, fuel, reconstruction, and repair materials," as well as "make concerted efforts to repair critical infrastructure, restore essential services, provide adequate shelter for the displaced, and ensure they can return to their homes."
She also urged international pressure targeting the Netanyahu government, arguing that "world leaders must demonstrate that they truly are committed to upholding their duty to prevent genocide and to ending the impunity that has fuelled decades of Israeli crimes across the occupied Palestinian territory. They must halt all arms transfers to Israel until Israel's crimes under international law cease. They must press Israeli authorities to grant human rights monitors and journalists access to Gaza to ensure transparent reporting on the impact of Israel's actions on conditions in Gaza."
“The ceasefire must not become a smokescreen for Israel's ongoing genocide," Callamard stressed, also calling on companies worldwide to "immediately suspend any operations that contribute or are directly linked to Israel's genocide."
"Israeli officials responsible for orchestrating, overseeing, and materially committing genocide remain in power," she added. "Failing to demonstrate that they or their government will be held accountable effectively gives them free rein to continue the genocide and commit further human rights violations in Gaza and in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
In addition to the airstrikes in Gaza on Thursday, Israel's troops and police continued for a second day what they called "a broad counterterrorism operation" in Tubas, a governorate in the northern West Bank. Across the illegally occupied territory, Israeli forces and settler-colonists also destroyed Palestinians' olive trees, and some settlers set fire to a mosque in Biddya.
Roland Friedrich, West Bank director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Affairs (UNWRA), said Thursday that "more than 10 months into operation 'Iron Wall,' destruction has been relentless. Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams camps have been completely emptied by Israeli forces, with some 32,000 residents remaining forcibly displaced."
"And yet, even in these ghost towns that were once vibrant camps, Israeli forces still see the need to order demolitions for the sake of so-called 'military purposes,'" Friedrich continued, pointing to demolitions in Jenin planned for Friday. "This systematic destruction goes against the basic principles of international law, and only serves to tighten the control of Israeli forces over the camps in the long term. The camps need to be rebuilt—not further destroyed—and their residents allowed to return and restore their lives. They must not be trapped in interminable displacement."
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