CAPITOL GAINS: Jodeh links push for Gaza peace to press for statewide advances

‘I don’t have the luxury of sitting here and hoping someone gets it right’

By Ceyna Dawson, Sentinel Story Sprint Reporter (Via AP Storyshare)

The Sentinel Story Sprint is a statewide journalism project. Story Sprint brings students from Colorado State University, Community College of Aurora and Colorado College into the Aurora newsroom to cover local stories, alongside veteran journalists. Funded by a grant from the Colorado Media Project, the Sentinel Story Sprint provides a professional newsroom with emerging journalists, and emerging journalists with a professional newsroom.

DENVER | Obeid Kaifo is loud and clear when he thinks about the challenges his longtime friend Iman Jodeh faces as the first Palestinian and Muslim state lawmaker from Colorado.

The pressure for Jodeh is palpable, Kaifo said, “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemies.”

Iman Jodeh
Portrait by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado

Jodeh, 41, has two communities she must represent: her southwest Aurora district and her own heritage.

The tension between the two is more present than ever after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting war that left Jodeh’s ancestral home devastated.

Jodeh holds the fifth-highest position in the state House as the Democratic majority co-whip. In her second term, her legislative focus is those struggling with housing, health care and student debt.

At the same time, she feels the need to speak out on the Israel-Hamas war as she does not think many are speaking to the full gravity of the situation.

“I don’t have the luxury of sitting here and hoping someone gets it right,” Jodeh said.

At first she was reluctant to bring her identity to the debate that spilled into the state Capitol, but now she is a leading voice demanding a ceasefire.

She frequently writes opinion pieces — the most recent on how the attack on Rafah should be condemned similar to the Oct. 7 assault. In a recent social media post on X, Jodeh wrote, “Stop ignoring the beheaded babies & charred bodies. …Your sin of silence is making you complicit and atonement will not be an option.” She added a graphic video of events happening in Gaza.

At the same time, Jodeh was tasked with being the chief sponsor of a major bill working toward affordable housing along mass-transit corridors.

Her journey to the Capitol

Born in Aurora to Palestinian parents, Jodeh brings a new perspective and approach to leadership as a western-born and western-educated Muslim.

In high school, her father, Mohamad, helped bridge the culture gap. He took the initiative to talk with students, parents and teachers to help them better understand Islamic culture, said state Sen. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, whose late husband was the principal at Overland High School and also a state lawmaker.

Jodeh said she gained elements of her leadership style from attending these types of events with her father, who she describes as leading with a patient style. She also learned how to guide communication about being Muslim, Arab and Palestinian to those who were unfamiliar.

“When I kind of stepped into that same role alongside him or taking over, I was able to kind of elevate that approach,” she said.

Now as a leader herself, she speaks in a calculative, stern and pensive manner, waiting for the exact moment to say the right words.

It’s Jodeh’s experiences that influence her policy decisions.

When asked about the most notable moments at the Capitol, Jodeh says there are countless examples. Pausing again, she takes her hair out of the claw clip and sweeps it right back up.

She slowly begins to speak, describing how she has epilepsy. She has sponsored two bills on seizure training and action plans in K-12 classrooms as well as epilepsy awareness license plates.

In the most recent legislative session that ended in May, she was a primary sponsor on bills making prescription drugs more affordable and increasing housing along transit lines.

These issues, while not linked to her Muslim identity, reflect her own experiences growing up in the Aurora metroplex, and they resonate with the struggles many constituents face, she said.

Yet at the Capitol there are parts of her identity she will never be able to escape from, and she does not want to, notably the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie acknowledges the war has made debates on the floor tense and emotional at times. Other lawmakers this session pushed legislation to distance Colorado from Israel and condemn the war.

“The war is painful for many people, but those who are from either the Jewish community or Palestinian community, you know, their experiences are that much more real,” McCluskie said.

In a specific instance, Iman was extremely upset with how another lawmaker was speaking about the impacts of the war.

Despite how distressed Jodeh was, McCluskie recalls how Jodeh will stop and take the time necessary to collect her thoughts. Jodeh will then either speak after thinking through the issue to the fullest extent, or she will schedule a different time.

“I think she has shown a level of maturity, wisdom and just not being caught up in the moment,” McCluskie said.

However, Jodeh recognizes there is only so much she can do to enlighten others.

??“There has been a sense of duplicity when it comes to advocating for one person, but not the other,” said Jodeh. “You know, if we are going to defend Ukraine; (and) if we are going to defend Black Lives Matter, we should defend Palestine.”

Her voice begins to rise, she completely stops moving, and suddenly words begin to pour.

“It gets to a point when you can call it a genocide and very reputable organizations, sources from around the world are saying the same thing,” she said.

Asked how she feels about colleagues who do not support her views on the Gaza war, she replies almost in a whisper: “abandoned” and “lonely.”

The barriers to leading with identity

Kaifo, her friend of 15 years and a son of Syrian immigrants, understands the pressure of having to represent an entire group.

Muslim identity in America shifted on 9/11, Kaifo said. Suddenly, being a Muslim held higher significance to the world. He, too, grew up in Aurora, graduated from Overland High School and now owns and manages the Capitol Hill Shish Kabob Grill with his father.

And in Jodeh, he sees a lot just by her presence. She represents the growing Muslim community, Muslims are not monolithic, but her perspective gives a light and nuance toward policies being passed in the house, he said.

In thinking about his identity, he recalls how people often accuse Muslims and Palestininans of being solely emotional — almost as though it is not possible for a person to hold their identities and simultaneously create strategically informed policy decisions on these issues.

“And that’s my concern always, is that we divert from the actual policy and it turns into, well, because she’s Palestinian, because she’s Muslim or because she’s a woman. No, nothing like that,” Kaifo continues. “It’s who she is as a person.”

Ceyna Dawson is a junior at Colorado College majoring in Political Science and minoring in Journalism. She has worked at her campus newspaper The Catalyst as both a writer and section editor for the past two years. Dawson is now the President of Cutler Publications which manages six on-campus papers and promotes independent student journalism.