Only One Member Of WA Congressional Delegation Signs Letter Calling For Israel To Stop Starving Gaza

On Monday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), joined by 18 other U.S. lawmakers, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding that the Trump administration take immediate action to stop Israel’s from starving the people of Gaza as a weapon of war. Only one member of Washington State’s Congressional delegation, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), signed in support, reminding Washington once again how little their congressional delegation cares about Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

Since March 2, Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza—cutting off food, water, and medicine from a population already on the brink. At least 57 children have died from starvation, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, as cited by the World Health Organization. Experts say that 100% of the population is at risk of famine. 

On May 27, Israel launched a US-backed aid distribution plan, but it keeps Israel in total control of food and supplies for the very people they’ve spent more than 600 days trying to annihilate. A small number of trucks have successfully entered Gaza with more than 3,000 aid trucks waiting to enter Gaza, according to the United Nations. And when aid does make it to Gaza, starving Palestinians risk getting sniped to receive it. According to the United Nations, Israel has killed at least 400 Palestinians while they sought aid in the last month. 

“We cannot be silent,” the letter reads. “This current blockade is starving Palestinian civilians in violation of international law, and the militarization of food will not help. We demand an immediate end to the blockade, an immediate resumption of unfettered humanitarian aid entry into Gaza, the restoration of U.S. funding to UNRWA, and an immediate and lasting ceasefire. Any other path forward is a path toward greater hunger, famine, and death.”

Washingtonians shouldn’t be shocked that only one member of their congressional delegation signed the letter. Every member of the Washington congressional delegation, except Jayapal has recieved thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands, of dollars from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to Track AIPAC.

Based on the grading of several advocacy groups, Jayapal is one of the most consistent advocates for Palestine in all of congress --- sadly, not a terribly high bar. The Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, gave her a score of 15 out of 16 for "positive actions" taken for Palestinian rights from 2023-2024. The next highest score in Washington belongs to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) who earned a four out of 10 actions on the Senate side.

But on June 5, Rep. Adam Smith, an ardent backer of Israel and one of AIPAC's darlings, condemned "rising violence around aid distribution sites in Gaza." He called on Israel to "recognize its shortcomings" and fix its "haphazard" distrubtion plan. He gave Hamas a little jab too, writing, "it is also of the utmost importance that Hamas and other actors are condemned for attempts to disrupt the distribution of aid."

From a scan of their offical government websites, no other member of the Washington congressional delegation has made an official statement condemning Israel's starvation of Gaza in 2025.