Nearly 7,000 miles away from her family in Israel, as missiles rained from the sky and terrorists marched into Israeli towns, Colorado Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet desperately refreshed her phone. 

Since the Hamas terrorist group attacked Israel on Saturday, Michaelson Jenet has relied on an online blog for updates on her family and homeland. When stress wakes her in the middle of the night and between legislative meetings, she reads the updated death count: more than 1,200 in Israel as of Wednesday, with thousands more injured and around 150 taken hostage. 

In homes, streets and music festivals, the militants indiscriminately gunned down civilians of all ages. It’s believed to be the largest number of Jewish people murdered in a single day since the Holocaust. 

“I am in a constant state of worry. There’s no way for me to help my family,” said Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, an Israeli Jew. “I never believed in my lifetime I would see a massacre of Jews like we are seeing right now. … I didn’t believe something like this would happen in my country.” 

The day after the attack, Israel formally declared war on Hamas – the Palestinian militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. Israeli jet fighters launched retaliatory strikes in Gaza within hours of the initial surprise attack, and on Monday Israeli officials began cutting electricity and blocking fuel and food from entering the Gaza Strip. 

Michaelson Jenet said nine of her cousins in Israel have been called to serve. And she isn’t the only state legislator with family caught in the conflict. 

Rep. Iman Jodeh’s family maintains a home in Palestine and she has extended family in Gaza. She hasn’t been able to contact her family in Gaza since the war began, she said. Jodeh is Palestinian and Colorado’s first and only Muslim state legislator.  

At least 1,100 people in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes as of Wednesday, including hundreds of children. Around 5,000 more have been injured, and all of the Gaza Strip’s more than two million occupants are impacted by the siege on resources. Jodeh said these civilians are paying the price for the actions of terrorists. 

“I’m completely heartbroken. The loss of innocent lives is happening on both sides,” said Jodeh, D-Aurora. “I’m a Palestinian, I’m very proud of my heritage. But it’s not lost upon me that people conflate the millions of Palestinian people with Hamas. That’s very hurtful and very hard to combat.” 

Michaelson Jenet and Jodeh highlight two sides of the same reality playing out across the globe – and within the Colorado Capitol – as the world reckons with the war. 

In the wake of Saturday’s attack on Israel, dozens of state legislators and other Colorado officials offered their support in statements posted online. But legislators have been seemingly split on the nature of the conflict. 

Newly-appointed Rep. Tim Hernández received backlash for attending a rally the day of the attack on Israel advertised as “in support of Palestinian resistance in Gaza.” A flyer for the event read, “resistance is justified when people are occupied,” referring to territories captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

Hernández later said he attended the event in solidarity with the Colorado Palestinian community, not in support of Hamas’ attack. But other legislators have still expressed frustration with arguments that the attack was justified. 

Rep. Steven Woodrow posted on X: “So-called progressives seriously asking ‘what were Palestinians supposed to do?’ as if taking hostages, beheading children and massacring concertgoers was the only option.” Rep. David Ortiz responded, “This has been really disgusting and painful. Imagine fighting a whole global conflict based on global terror only to have your fellow Americans equivocate, waffle or outright celebrate it.” 

Michaelson Jenet said it’s been difficult for her to see fellow progressives seemingly rationalizing the attack on Israel, referencing pushback she received after publicly condemning Hernández. 

“It’s my own (progressive) community that is not supporting the (Israeli) community after a deep trauma,” Michaelson Jenet said. “This was an attack on Jewish people and I think we don’t talk about that enough. Anti-Semitism is increasing in the United States. This is an anti-Semitic attack and I don’t think people recognize that.” 

In statements after the attack, some legislators expressed unequivocal solidarity with Israel, while others included condemnation for the Israeli government’s previous actions while also condemning Hamas’ violence. 

Rep. Javier Mabrey posted: “We can condemn these horrible actions and we can do this while calling for an end of the oppression and occupation of the Palestine and while condemning the killing of Palestinian civilians resulting from the response.” Sen. Nick Hinrichsen wrote: “The actions of the Netanyahu regime over the last 14 years have made Israel less democratic, has been unjust and oppressive towards the people of Palestine,” adding, “None of that justifies the terrorist actions of Hamas.”

Jodeh said this kind of nuance is important, saying she thinks people are being unfairly misconstrued as anti-Semitic or pro-Hamas for supporting self-determination for Palestinians. Palestinians and Israelis have battled for sovereignty over the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea since before Israel was created in 1948. Both groups see the land as their own and it is considered sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

“This is 75 years of war and conflict and occupation. This isn’t something that can be distilled down to a tweet,” Jodeh said. “It is perfectly fine for people, legislators or otherwise, to support basic human rights for Palestinians. That does not mean that anyone is not denouncing war, violence or the loss of life.”

Jodeh said some of her legislative colleagues have been “quick to judge” and urged them to engage in discussions with one another rather than following “knee-jerk reactions.” 

She pointed to the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calling Palestinian fighters “human animals” as dangerous, dehumanizing rhetoric that attempts to oversimplify the conflict. 

“We can’t make it so black and white,” Jodeh said. “I don’t want people to think that as a Palestinian I condone what’s happening. What’s happening is deplorable and it is hurting innocent lives. … I do want to encourage everyone to speak out against violence. Whether it’s violence against Israelis or Palestinians or anyone else, I really believe we as Americans need to uphold our values.” 

Michaelson Jenet similarly called for the humanization of the victims of the war.

“These are real people. These are children, these are elderly, these are kidnapped young women being paraded in the streets,” Michaelson Jenet said. “And on the same side of the coin, innocent Palestinians are dying as a result of this. I don’t know what Hamas intended, but I have to believe they knew Israel would retaliate for such a pogrom. What else was Israel supposed to do?”