To Rep. Lawler Re: H.Res. 888

Rep. Lawler,

I grew up in Suffern and Congers, am a graduate of the Clarkstown School District, and got married in Pearl River. I’m sure there’s a “you can take the girl out of Rockland…” joke there somewhere, but alas, I’m instead reaching out to you with immense seriousness about the footprint you’re choosing to leave on this earth.

You have crafted H.Res. 888 carefully to uphold the slippery slope that labels the questioning of Israel’s “right to exist” - code for any conversation about Zionism - as “anti-Semitic.” This resolution emboldens the lazy insinuation that those who take seriously the continued collateral damage of Israel’s pathway to statehood - thousands of innocent civilians before and after October 7th - are “[call]ing for its destruction”. It clearly aims to amplify the clamor of political silencing tools above the actual ongoing violence of a state that has cost more than 15,000 Palestinian lives in the last two months. It silences the many thousands of Jews that have stood against Zionism since its inception and to this day. They will continue to speak bravely today and tomorrow.

If we can’t discuss history, Rep. Lawler, how do you advise that we contextualize the NYTimes report from yesterday, November 30, 2023, that Israeli officials knew of Hamas’ October 7th plans that massacred 1,200 innocent Israelis? Should the intentions, beliefs and actions of leaders and militaries sponsored by the U.S. not be factored into our analysis of the sequence of events? Is the following interview of Netanyahu from 2001 irrelevant to his government’s actions toward Palestinians?

(transcript of video)

Netanyahu: The main thing is first of all to strike them not once but several times, so painfully that the price they pay will be unbearable. So far, the price-tag is not unbearable. [I mean] a large-scale attack on the Palestinian Authority, causing them to fear that everything is about to collapse. Fear is what brings them to...

Host: Hold on, then 'the world' will again say that we're aggressors.

Netanyahu: They can say whatever they want.

Host: Aren't you afraid of what they'll say?

Netanyahu: No.

Host: Especially today with the U.S. I know how they are...

Netanyahu: America is something that you can easily maneuver and move in the right direction. And even if they do say something, so then they say something... so what? 80% of Americans support us! It's absurd! We have such support there, and here we're thinking 'what should we do if?'...

Look, I wasn't afraid to maneuver [the Clinton Administration]. I wasn't afraid to confront Clinton. I wasn't afraid to go against the U.N. What happened with the Oslo Accords? The Accords, which were ratified by Parliament. I was asked before the [1996] elections: "Will you fulfill them?"

I said: "Yes, subject to reciprocity, and minimizing pull-outs." But how can one minimize the [obliged] pull-outs? I gave my own interpretation to the agreements, in such a way that will allow me to stop the race back to the 1967 borders.

Will you continue to silence the history of Jewish pain being wrongfully weaponized by the British to inflict division and violence upon others? Do you wish to use your education, experience and power to use the horror inflicted upon Jews to silence Americans who dare to stand against painfully familiar forms of fascism?

Why do you want to silence those who stand against genocide if you believe in the value of a place “where something like the Holocaust could never happen again” - as stated H.Res. 888? How is Israel in its current form that place? Do you need a higher death toll to compare?

Will you really live with the lie that the collective punishment of Palestinians - 6,000 children - is a defensive tactic suitable for a powerful U.S.-sponsored military? Or is politically cornering House Democrats with straw man arguments your primary goal? Their positions on this resolution are disturbing, but like occupation, your insistence on being the disturbance is the root of the problem.

Will you really live with the lie that the collective punishment of Palestinians - 6,000 children - is a defensive tactic suitable for a powerful U.S.-sponsored military? Or is politically cornering House Democrats with straw man arguments your primary goal? Their silence is disturbing, but like occupation, your insistence on being the disturbance is the root of the problem.

So I write to you today as a person who has spent my formative years in Rockland, a place I long called home, and where my parents built a beautiful life outside of their homeland Bangladesh. In the 90s and 2000s, my family, you, and I had many opportunities afforded to us by life in Rockland County: we could travel freely. No one raided our hamlets around serene waters, removed us from our homes, shut off our utilities in retaliation for our government’s actions. We lived life in general apathy of the Indigenous pain of our land - it’s the easiest choice. 

We’re adults with agency now, Rep Lawler, and we have the privilege to forego ease for justice. Is the Republican author of H.Res. 888 going to change his mind because someone wrote him a letter, readers will scoff. Through tarnished hope, I ask your team to let these words find you, and that you let them in - just for a moment. I ask that they speak to the part of you that rightfully stood against the transphobic amendment to the H.R. 5 Parents Bill of Rights. You co-sponsored and then voted against it upon realizing the harmful ramifications of that amendment: there is a part of you that saw that the pursuit of freedom for some must not compromise the literal safety of vulnerable people.

I urge you to reconsider your power and words once again - this time with Res. 888 - and its role in silencing those who are unpacking the root causes of this violence. You said in March that you’re someone who votes your conscience first. Unlike many of your peers, you seem to leave some space for reason. I urge you to see it here.

Sincerely,
Farah Momen

Additional Reading: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Netanyahu and Hamas