I was at the courthouse on Pearl Street in Boulder on June 1 last year. I was there when a man threw Molotov cocktails at a group of us — mostly Jews, and some of our allies — who had gathered peacefully to remember and to remind people about the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 that were still suffering in Gaza. 

I watched several people immediately suffering from burns inflicted by those flames. I watched chaos ensue and responses of both bravery and fear. I live with those images every day, as do all of us who were there that day. We will carry those images for the rest of our lives.  

Karen Diamond died from her wounds. About a dozen others suffered from non-life-threatening burns, some requiring multiple surgeries to treat. And more than a dozen others were spared physical injuries but were also targets and continue suffering from the emotional aftermath of that experience.  

Boulder District Judge Nancy Salomone, who sentenced the firebomber, explained it plainly: He deliberately chose the time, place, circumstance, and weapons designed to inflict maximum pain on people he targeted because they were Jewish.  

This is the world we live in now. These types of attacks on the Jewish community are unfortunately becoming more common as antisemitism continues to rise.  

I do not speak just for myself. Callie Gartner, Haya Gartner, Rick Gartner, Yonatan Gold, Michelle Goldman, Rachelle Halpern, Av Kornfeld, Mark Loewenstein, Omer Shachar, Barbara Steinmetz, Jean Unger, and Ed Victor – all survivors of the 6/1 attack – feel equally compelled as Americans, Coloradans and Jews and Jewish allies who were targeted that afternoon in downtown Boulder, to join me in publicly addressing the campaign activities of Colorado U.S. House candidate Melat Kiros and Colorado U.S. Senate candidate and state Sen. Julie Gonzales with “influencer” Hasan Piker. 

Both women recently appeared on Piker’s show, and enthusiastically promoted a campaign rally with him in Colorado this past Sunday, which thankfully fell through. Kiros went a step further and used Piker’s hateful messaging in a mass texting campaign that went out to everyone in the district.  

Piker is a provocateur who promotes and justifies violent extremism, going as far as to claim that “America deserved 9/11, dude.” His comments on the terrorist firebombing in Boulder that targeted us and killed Karen Diamond are especially revealing. He initially expressed opposition and called the attack “psychotic.” But then a guest on his show framed the Molotov cocktails thrown at our peaceful gathering as a “natural human reaction.” Piker nodded along and responded by comparing this horrific attack against Jews to Jewish resistance against the Nazis during the Holocaust.  

This is exactly the kind of twisted and hateful logic that recently inspired Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to “stand with” the terrorist who tried to burn us alive, calling the attack a, “decisive act of resistance.”  

Kiros and Gonzales both had the opportunity to directly confront Piker on these issues, which matter deeply to Coloradans like us. Yet neither pushed back on any of his hateful ideas.  

To me, that silence is complicity.  

Words from people who seek political power carry weight. Silence, when words are necessary, also carries weight. It shapes what our culture deems acceptable and unacceptable. 

The Molotov cocktails that killed Karen Diamond and nearly killed us were thrown by a man whose mind was poisoned. In this environment, politicians have a clear choice to make.  

Will politicians like Kiros and Gonzales keep pandering to the Hasan Pikers of the world? Or will they stand with the families of those who were burned on Pearl Street, and all Coloradans who want to keep violent extremism and hate out of our beautiful state? I urge both the politicians seeking office, and the voters they are running to represent, to choose wisely.  

Andrew Chester is a Lafayette resident and member of Boulder Run For Their Lives.