For the past year, Rep. Pat Ryan, whose district includes Beacon, has refused to engage with his constituents about ending Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Enough is enough. We will not vote for genocide. I plan to vote blank in Ryan’s race on Nov. 5 unless he endorses an arms embargo on Israel.
Since last fall, thousands of Hudson Valley community members have marched, rallied, petitioned, written letters and made phone calls asking Ryan to support a ceasefire in Gaza and to show even a shred of empathy for the thousands of injured and slain Palestinians. We have begged him to understand the context of brutal displacement and apartheid that Palestinians have lived under for over 75 years.
Instead, Ryan has responded with full-throated support of Israel’s violent escalation, which has killed an estimated 186,000 people in the past 12 months, according to a study in The Lancet. The International Criminal Court ruled in January that Israel is plausibly committing genocide. Journalists, medical professionals and human rights experts have repeatedly sounded the alarm about war crimes committed by the Israeli army. In the same week that journalists in Gaza posted footage of hospital patients attached to IVs being burned alive by Israeli airstrikes, Ryan said in a televised debate that there was “nothing” Israel could do to lose his support.
In fact, Ryan continues to vote for more bombs to Israel. To add insult to injury, he was one of just 22 House Democrats who voted to censure their colleague, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, for using the phrase “from the river to the sea.” When President Joe Biden announced he would withhold a small portion of the U.S. shipments of arms to Israel, Ryan took it upon himself to write a letter urging the president not to.
All of this is a slap in the face to Ryan’s Palestinian, Muslim and Arab constituents, who are part of the majority of Americans and 71 percent of Democrats who do not want our tax dollars funding genocide and war crimes.
We have exhausted every other avenue of communication. Pat Ryan refuses to represent us. We have no option but to withhold our votes. If he wants to keep his job, he must support an arms embargo. Otherwise, we vote blank.
Our community movement represents a real threat to Ryan’s candidacy. Over 1,300 District 18 constituents have pledged to vote blank in the race. Ryan won his current seat with a margin of under 3,600 votes. In a recent poll, 10 percent of District 18 voters were undecided – that’s up to 25,000 voters if turnout is similar to 2022.
Pat Ryan has the opportunity to do what is right, and it just might save him his job. I encourage District 18 voters to join us and take the pledge. No votes for genocide!
Chiara Di Lello, Beacon
