WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Thursday that the Justice Department is monitoring an increase in reported threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities in the United States tied to Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
President Joe Biden called on Americans to denounce Islamophobia and antisemitism in an Oval Office address Thursday night. “You’re all America,” he said.
“The entire Justice Department remains vigilant in our efforts to identify and respond to hate crimes, threats of violence, or related incidents, with particular attention to threats to faith communities,” Garland said in prepared remarks at a news conference in Jacksonville, Florida.
Garland said that last week he had directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation and US attorneys’ offices to work with state and local law enforcement agencies to respond to threats, and urged federal prosecutors to be in contact with faith and community leaders.
The latest harassment victim was the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was forced to move an annual banquet scheduled for Saturday to an undisclosed location after a Virginia hotel canceled the event because of threats.
CAIR said the Marriott Crystal Gateway hotel in Arlington, Virginia, which has hosted its gathering for more than 10 years, received the threats.
“Anonymous callers have threatened to plant bombs in the hotel’s parking garage, kill specific hotel staff in their homes, and storm the hotel in a repeat of the Jan. 6th attack on the US Capitol if the events moved forward,” CAIR said in a statement on Thursday night.
The group said it would proceed with the banquet on Saturday at an alternate, secured location.
A representative for the hotel was not immediately available to comment.
The move came a day after the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a second advocacy group, said the Hilton hotel in Houston had abruptly canceled its booking to hold its annual conference at the venue on Oct. 27-29.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott praised Hilton’s decision in a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing, “Texas has no room for hate & antisemitism.”
“The Governor’s rhetoric, and actions by the hotel echo and inflame the sharp increase in hate incidents that are targeting Arabs,” the group said in an X post, citing the recent murder of a 6-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois in what police said was a bias-motivated crime.
The Oct. 7 cross-border terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s subsequent bombing of the Hamas-controlled enclave of Gaza have sparked tensions around the world, including in the United States.
The FBI said on Monday it was investigating the stabbing death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Muslim boy, in Illinois as a hate crime. A suspect has already been charged with state crimes, and authorities said the boy and his mother were targeted because they were Palestinian Americans.
US authorities on Tuesday charged a North Carolina man for allegedly sending a threatening message to a Jewish organization. Even before the current war, the Anti-Defamation League reported a record number of antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2022.
