“Poor, poor, pitiful me.” The words of the Linda Ronstadt song echo every time I hear Rep. Jim McGovern bemoan the fact that many of his constituents feel he has done nowhere near enough to stop the genocide in Gaza. Mr. McGovern will eagerly tell you that he has called for a cease-fire, voted against military aid to Israel, and co-sponsored legislation to restart U.S. support for UNRWA (the UN Palestine relief agency). It’s not enough. As a member of Congress years ago, you were arrested three times protesting the Sudanese genocide in Darfur. Why are you comparatively complacent about the killing in Gaza? Apparently you feel you have more to lose in defending the people of Gaza than in defending the people of Darfur. You are the ranking member of the powerful House Rules Committee. You are a co-chair of the Tom Lantos Congressional Human Rights Commission. You are co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus. Yet you have failed to use those leadership positions to demand that the Biden/Harris Administration end the human rights holocaust in Gaza, including the deliberate use of starvation as a tool of genocide by the Israeli government. We need you to be a standard-bearer for Palestine in Congress. You are an official of a government that is complicit in what one UN human rights expert has deemed genocide. Today and every day, use your bully pulpit to demand an immediate U.S. arms embargo on Israel. The times demand nothing less. The need could not be more urgent.

Jennifer Scarlott

Northampton