John,

Our government continues to send billions to Israel’s military with no conditions on upholding human rights. Each day we hear and see new atrocities from this U.S.-backed genocide on the Palestinian people, such as mass graves at multiple Gaza hospitals.

In response, our grassroots anti-war movement is growing, with students around the country setting up tents on their campuses to demand their colleges divest from Israel’s genocide and occupation.

I joined students at the University of Michigan’s Gaza solidarity encampment this week:

As a Jewish student at Columbia University said: “There are no universities left in Gaza so we chose to reclaim our university for the people of Palestine.”

This week is Passover, the Jewish holiday of liberation. Exchanging foods like matzah and matzo ball soup within multifaith and multi-racial encampments, Jewish students and faculty have held seders on campuses across the country.

The right to protest is essential to democracy, and it’s a fundamental constitutional right as part of our free speech protections in the First Amendment.

In many states, university leaders are calling in police and even state troopers in riot gear to violently disrupt these peaceful protests, including tear-gassing, tasing, and brutally beating students. Some universities are banning student protestors from campus, locking them out of their dorms and leaving them homeless.

This repression and retaliation that students are facing for exercising their constitutional right to protest genocide is appaling.

Now, some state legislators are trying to pass bills to silence students’ voices. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill trying to take away the non-profit status of pro-Palestinian organizations, which could further threaten our First Amendment rights to protest and free speech. And just this week, the U.S. Supreme Court chose to leave in place a judge’s decision that jeopardizes the right to organize protests in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

I will continue to work to protect the right to protest, as well other rights and liberties across our country and the world.

I’ve tried to stop our government from continuing to abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to surveil and spy on Americans in violation of our civil liberties, disproportionately targeting Black and brown communities. Unfortunately this passed the House with bipartisan support last week.

I won’t stay silent during attacks on our democracy. I will always speak truth to power, and hold our government accountable for violating civil rights and human rights.

Tomorrow, President Biden and members of his administration will dine and joke with U.S. journalists during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Palestinian journalists in Gaza have asked their U.S. colleagues to boycott the dinner “as an act of solidarity with us — your fellow journalists — as well as with the millions of Palestinians currently being starved in Gaza due to the Biden administration’s continued political, financial, and military backing of Israel and cut-off of funding for life-saving humanitarian aid.”

Israel’s government has regularly murdered Palestinian journalists for exposing the truth, such as Shireen Abu Akleh. Since last October, over 125 journalists in Gaza have been systematically targeted and killed. Others have been jailed and tortured by Israeli forces.

Earlier this month I had the chance to recognize Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian journalist who has bravely used his platform to document the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the lives of the innocent people who have been killed. We presented him with a Congressional Record to honor his work telling Palestinians’ stories, and I told him that our existence as Palestinians is resistance.

May we continue growing the movement to demand human rights and freedom for Palestinians and for all people.

In solidarity,

Rashida