Born in Utah to Palestinian parents, Nora Abu-Dan is no stranger to conflict in the Middle East and the sorrows that go with it. She’s been heartbroken and upset before “but nothing has ever happened to this magnitude in my lifetime.”
“It’s been absolutely devastating,” she said of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
As a University of Utah student, Abu-Dan co-founded the nonpartisan, nonprofit Emerald Project in 2017 to counter misrepresentations of Islam and the Muslim community.
But now that events have made the story personal, Abu-Dan spoke only for herself when she said the way we’re talking about the war is “a very specific, one-sided narrative” — that the plight of Palestinians has been lost in the retaliation on Hamas.
“I'm not taking away from any lives lost, but we're just saying, value a Palestinian life, a Palestinian child, a Palestinian woman, a Palestinian man. Mourn that death equally to that of an Israeli citizen.”
She feels rejected by her state, her country and the media.
“To see the governor of my state only speak out against the attacks on Israel, which are, of course, horrible, but to completely ignore what's happening to Palestinians when I've tried to have meetings with him for a couple of years now, and he hasn't made the time to see any Palestinians.”
KUER contacted the office of Gov. Spencer Cox for a response. In a statement, a spokesperson said “we did not find a formal request for a meeting, however, Gov. Cox cares deeply about the safety and security of Utah’s Palestinian community, and we will continue to look for opportunities to engage.”
While Abu-Dan appreciates the governor’s message to Palestinians during his Oct. 19 news conference that “our hearts are broken for you as well,” she said he needs to back that up with action.
“At the end of the day, he held a rally to stand with Israel, and we were a side mention. I would just encourage Gov. Cox to have a rally for the Palestinians as well and to have something specifically for them, because this has been an ongoing issue, and it just feels like we're an afterthought.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Pamela McCall: How are Palestinians in Utah coping with the crisis in Gaza?
Nora Abu-Dan: The situation is really dire. The death toll is egregious. It's over 5,000 at this point. Many of them are children. I have a dear friend named Lena, and she actually came here to go to medical school when she was 18. She had 25 family members who were slaughtered by the bombs. They were instructed by the Israeli soldiers to move from north to south Gaza. So they were following instructions specifically from the Israeli government just wanting to seek some shelter. Within a moment, all of those family members are gone. That's four complete families that have been wiped from the civil registry in Palestine and 15 of them were kids. A lot of them were under 10 years old.
That's absolutely devastating because Lena is a Utahn. She has contributed to this community. She is an OB-GYN. She's helping women of all races, all religions in America bring life into this world. I feel like we have repaid her with the betrayal of taking her family's life. We’re doing that by aiding what's happening with the Israeli attacks because our federal tax dollars go to weaponry and toward supporting the Israeli soldiers.
PM: What are you hearing from the general Utah community?
We just had a rally on Saturday [Oct. 21], and there were people in their cars flipping us off. There were some anti-protesters when we had a peaceful rally and we weren't even speaking about the Israeli side. We were speaking about wanting the bloodshed to end and they were screaming obscenities. They were trying to intimidate us driving around the state capitol. I've had one person tell me, ‘I hope they bomb you back into the stone ages.’ Of course, I also heard the classic line ‘go back to your country.’ It's interesting to see the spike in Islamophobia when not all Palestinians are even Muslim. A lot of them are Christian.
PM: What are your thoughts about the Israeli civilians who were targeted in the Oct. 7 surprise attack and are dying in this conflict?
NA: Of course, it's never OK. It's never OK for any civilian to die. I'm not taking away from any lives lost, but we're just saying, value a Palestinian life, a Palestinian child, a Palestinian woman, a Palestinian man. Mourn that death equally to that of an Israeli citizen. When people are treated equally under the law, when an Israeli citizen's life is valued just as much as a Palestinian, and the same laws and the same basic human rights apply to both sides you know, I truly believe this will end overnight, because when you create an us-versus-them dynamic, that is when hatred is birthed.
