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While Elias Rodriguez must be brought to justice for the cold-blooded murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, the tragedy that unfolded outside the Capital Jewish Museum, in Washington, D.C., on May 21st, is not just about one man with a gun. It is about the dangerous network of radical groups that foster hate, promote violence under the guise of activism, and create monsters like Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, opened fire on a young couple who were both staffers at the Israeli embassy and were soon to be engaged to be married. When apprehended by police, he proudly shouted the slogans of “Free Free Palestine” and “There is only one solution: Intifada Revolution” – phrases that are regularly chanted at anti-Israel rallies across the country. The term “intifada” is widely associated with violent Palestinian uprisings that resulted in the murder of well over 1000 Israelis, mostly civilians.
Rodriguez’s actions didn’t emerge from a vacuum. He was not only radicalized by ideology but also immersed in it through regular participation in protests organized by far-left, Marxist groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and the ANSWER Coalition. These outfits and others they closely collaborate with, including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Al-Awda, routinely hold rallies that glorify violence, undermine law and order, and many times culminate in destruction and attacks on law enforcement.
What’s more, the very chant Rodriguez screamed – “There is only one solution: Intifada, revolution!” – currently appears on ANSWER Coalition’s own website. This is not coincidence. It is complicity. This same slogan has been used at ANSWER-sponsored rallies and is shouted at virtually every anti-Israel demonstration organized by ANSWER-affiliated groups.
These aren’t just chants – they are calls to action. They are messages designed to incite, and in this case, they arguably resulted in the deaths of two innocent people. A manifesto allegedly authored by Rodriguez was titled “Escalate for Gaza, Bring the War Home,” echoing the exact philosophy these radical groups push in public and online. The implication is unmistakable: Rodriguez followed through on the very “revolution” he and others were told to embrace.
One of ANSWER Coalition’s key partners, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), was founded by Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at UC Berkeley. Bazian is on record calling for an intifada in America. On April 10, 2004, during an anti-war rally in San Francisco, Bazian said, “We’re sitting here and watching the world pass by, people being bombed, and it’s about time that we have an intifada in this country that changes fundamentally the political dynamics in here.”
The D.C. shooting is evidence that this radical rhetoric has become reality – not just chants at rallies meant to demonize Israel, but chants that lead to bloodshed of innocent Jews and others.
For far too long, groups like ANSWER Coalition, SJP, JVP, and Al-Awda have operated freely under the protections of free speech, while abusing those protections to incite violence and justify terrorism. These are not peaceful protest groups – they are breeding grounds for hate, radicalization, and dehumanization of others. They blur the lines between advocacy and extremism, and in the process, they enable violence such as the kind we saw in Washington, D.C.
America has the legal tools to dismantle organizations that operate in this fashion. The government has designated foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) before. There is a large list for it run by the State Department, and having your group’s name on that list comes with serious consequences.
America as well has taken legal action against domestic groups that cross the line into incitement or material support for terrorism. Large organizations have been shut down as a result. It is time the same scrutiny and action be applied here. These groups should lose their tax status, be charged as accessories to Rodriguez’s crime, and be banned from the United States.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim had bright futures ahead of them. They were diplomats, peace-builders, and public servants. Their lives were stolen not just by the trigger of a gun but by the ideology and anti-Jewish rhetoric that gave that trigger meaning. Their murders were not random acts – they were political executions driven by a hate-fueled movement masquerading as a social justice campaign.
The United States must send a clear message: There is no place for terrorism in the name of activism. There is no room for incitement cloaked in the First Amendment. And there is no future for organizations that inspire killers with chants of “Intifada Revolution.” Those words are calls for violence and terror and will result in more blood on American streets.
Prison and even the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez is not enough. We must also pursue justice against the movements and groups that made him who he is. Failure to act threatens the security of all Americans and will embolden others to mimic and build upon Rodriguez’s crime.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
