[Ed Note: The following letter was sent this week to Congresswoman Lisa Blunt-Rochester and shared with the Delaware Call. Mr. Kowalko consented to its publication.]
Dear Representative Blunt-Rochester,
I totally disapprove of your recent vote on H.R. 894 regarding antizionism and antisemitism. Your vote implies that you condone the genocidal practices of Netanyahu and the unfettered slaughter of innocent civilians and children in Gaza.
The depths of suffering imposed on the Palestinian people by the IDF and Israel has reached a new level of inhumane actions. It is not your place nor Congress’ place to choose sides and blindly ignore the reality that Israel has continued its practice of displacing Palestinians from their land. The Israeli pogrom of placing heavily armed and radicalized “settlers” on stolen Palestinian land is well documented and must stop.
But your vote condones Palestinian deaths. Your vote condones the deaths and suffering of babies. Your vote condones the destruction of homes and lives. Your vote condones the spread of disease and starvation. Did you even consider the deaths of hundreds of UN aid workers and doctors because of the indiscriminate viciousness of the IDF forces?
This resolution should never have been brought and legislators should have refused to sanction it with any kind of vote. We need to move forward with peace initiatives and humanitarian care, not weaponizing our language.
John A. Kowalko Jr. is a former Delaware State Representative from the 25th District (Newark). He served from 2006 to 2022