“Every day we sit waiting on the phone, to see if our friends and family are alive. Do you understand how that feels? It’s been exhausting,” said Rania Mustafa, executive director of the Palestinian American Community Center.
Palestinians in Passaic County with family in Gaza spoke about their fears at a news conference Monday. They are worried their loved ones won’t make it out of the evacuation zone before Israeli Defense Forces launch a full-scale counter-attack against Hamas. And they say they’re now the target of anti-Palestinian bigotry in New Jersey.
Weeping with anger and grief, several speakers from New Jersey’s Palestinian community told stories of hatred directed against their people. They blamed a power structure that demonizes Palestinians and biased reporting by journalists.
“We have a physician who’s worked at Hackensack Jersey Shore Hospital for 2-2.5 years — who posted support for Palestinians, was terminated after Zionist colleagues pressured the administration,” said Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the Council on Islamic American Relations.
The Paterson area is home to some 20,000 Palestinians — the largest concentration of any U.S. city. Families there have lost relatives during Israeli reprisals for the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, when the terror group slaughtered more than 1,300 Israeli men, women and children. Israel responded by pounding Gaza City with deadly air strikes, decimating more than 2,600 Palestinians and cutting off food, power, and water, creating a humanitarian crisis the World Health Organization predicted would be a “death sentence.” Palestinians say there’s no safe space in Gaza.
After the Hamas attack, New Jersey officials tightened security at Jewish schools, temples and mosques. With incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia spreading, people caught in the cultural crossfire fear for their safety.
Gov. Phil Murphy called out all bias incidents. “Violence or discrimination against anyone based on their religion, whether it is Judaism, Islam, or anything else, is never justified,” Murphy said, adding “…may New Jersey be a shining example of how diverse communities can live, work and pray together.”
