Pro-Hamas Assailant Murders 2 Israeli Embassy Staffers at DC Jewish Event

Latest Developments

• Killer Shouted ‘Free Palestine’: Two Israeli Embassy staffers were murdered by a gunman shouting “Free Palestine” at a Jewish event in Washington, DC, on May 21. Elias Rodriguez, 30, shot and killed Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, as the couple, who were reportedly planning to get married, were leaving an American Jewish Committee event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals at the Capital Jewish Museum. Rodriguez then reportedly discarded his gun and ran inside the museum, where he was at first mistaken for a distressed witness before being detained when he displayed a red keffiyeh, admitted to the atrocity, and began chanting “Free, Free Palestine.”
• Result of Blood Libels Against Israel: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the terrorist attack was the result of “blood libels” against the Jewish state, which “must be fought to the bitter end.” President Donald Trump condemned the attack on social media, saying, “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that there was a “direct line” connecting the attack to antisemitic and anti-Zionist incitement, including “from leaders and officials from many countries and organizations, especially from Europe.” Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said the couple were “gunned down in the name of ‘Free Palestine.’”
• Gunman Affiliated With Radical Left-Wing Group: The assailant, a native of Chicago, had been affiliated with the extreme leftist “Party For Socialism and Liberation (PSL)” — a group that has distributed stickers urging to “Exterminate Zionists” and whose rallies include chants of “death to Israel” and “death to America.” PSL denied any current link to the killer, stating that Rodriguez only had a “brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017.”

FDD Expert Response

“For years before the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, Americans have been targeted by a foreign influence operation funded and weaponized by Qatar and Iran that promotes radically anti-Israel and antisemitic ideologies. We’ve seen the results of this radicalization campaign on more than 200 campuses, in our schools, in our media, and in the streets of our cities. In that light, the murder of two young Israeli Embassy staffers by a fanatic with a keffiyeh was entirely predictable.” — Mark Dubowitz, CEO

“There’s been more than a year and a half of denying Hamas’s atrocities and blaming Israel for imagined ones. Just this week, a top UN humanitarian official shared a false claim that 14,000 Palestinian babies would die of starvation in 48 hours. The two days have passed, and the supposed mass starvation death never happened, but two Israeli Embassy staffers were murdered at a Jewish event by a gunman motivated by these lies. Blood libels aren’t just insults; they’re calls to violence.” — David May, Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

“These cowardly and brutal murders demonstrate that concern for the plight of civilians in Gaza — a situation for which Hamas is responsible — is merely a fig leaf for the real agenda of these violently antisemitic groups: the destruction of the State of Israel and the targeting of Jewish communities wherever they may be.” — Ben Cohen, Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Director

FDD Background and Analysis

“Amnesty International’s False Genocide Claim,” by Orde Kittrie

“When Did The Current Wave of Antisemitism Begin?” by Ben Cohen

“6 Things to Know About Samidoun, the ‘Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network,’” FDD Insight

“Israeli Athletes to Receive 24-Hour Security at Paris Olympics,” FDD Flash Brief