Yesterday’s news of the Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie turning away the families of the hostages in Gaza has left me feeling both numb and defeated.

How has the House denied these families a chance to simply enter the House chambers when it has not prohibited pro-Palestinian protesters on many recent occasions? In the name of free speech, these protesters are allowed to disrupt the work of representatives in the House. Conversely, the families that peacefully came to the Capitol for a planned period of time were not only invited but supported by a state representative.

How is it these families were not allowed to talk, yet the protesters are? This is an obvious form of censorship and erasure of Jewish suffering and identity. When the speaker of the House said, “we must respect the deep personal connections members in this chamber have to this ongoing tragedy,” I asked myself, “which representatives have such a personal connection that they are unable to respectfully listen to victims of a tragedy?” By refusing to allow families of the hostages to speak in front of members of the House, she has turned her back on them, flippantly dismissing their pain and dismissing the personal connection several representatives and their constituents have to this conflict.

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When the speaker said she was not sure members on “both sides of the aisle would rise to the occasion,” she has excused their immaturity at the expense of deepening the wounds of the families directly connected to and impacted by the disappearance of their loved ones. Should such representatives who cannot “rise to the occasion” be responsible for enacting laws? How are pro-Palestinian protestors immune from having the “long term detrimental impacts on how we (Congress) are able to work together for the people of Colorado?” The House has clearly sided with the protesters and the protesters have failed to allow the Jewish community to be seen and grieve.

I ask the House today, Day 123 of the hostages being taken captive, to publicly apologize to the families of the hostages who traveled from Israel for silencing them and compounding their suffering.

Bring them home.

Dina Rouff

Denver Jewish community member

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