The gunman who killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Washington Jewish museum last week has become a martyr in the eyes of Pro-Hamas extremists online, a disturbing investigation by the Anti-Defamation League has found.
Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago shot and killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an American Jewish Committee reception at the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21. When police arrested him, Rodriguez shouted “Free, free Palestine” and told officers “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”
Within hours, Rodriguez’s manifesto—titled “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home”—was spreading across anti-Zionist social media channels. But rather than condemning the violence, many activists embraced it. The group Unity of Fields quickly turned his writings into a slick propaganda zine, complete with gun imagery, and declared: “We ain’t condemning shit” and “FREE ELIAS RODRIGUEZ!” They called him a “political prisoner” acting out of “solidarity and love for the Palestinian people.”
Other antisemtic groups went further. The Bronx Anti-War Coalition proclaimed: “What Elias Rodriguez did is the highest expression of anti-Zionism,” adding on their Telegram channel: “We need more Elias Rodriguez in the world.” Guy Christensen, who has 3.4 million TikTok followers, told his audience: “I do not condemn the elimination of those two Zionist officials. He is not a terrorist. He’s a resistance fighter.” He urged followers to meet any government crackdown “with escalation and stronger resistance.”
Meanwhile, Author Susan Abulhawa wrote: “Natural logic: when governments fail to hold Israel accountable for an actual holocaust being committed before our very eyes, no genocidal Zionist should be safe anywhere in the world.” Later, she added: “Now we’re supposed to feel bad for two genocide cheerleaders after watching these colonizer baby killers slaughter people by the hundreds every day for two years.”
Even those who stopped short of celebration found ways to justify the killings. Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd compared the murders to the 1938 killing of a Nazi diplomat by a Jewish refugee, arguing this wasn’t “a random antisemitic attack” but a direct response to Gaza. Khaled Barakat, sanctioned by the U.S. government for terror ties, called the shooting “a natural consequence” of Israeli actions. His partner Charlotte Kates was blunt: “Genocide has to have consequences.”
But the bloodthirsty response has created uncomfortable fractures even within anti-Zionist circles. When Jewish Voice for Peace issued a statement that “All human life is precious” The United Liberation Front for Palestine responded with a threat: “And anyone who condemns [the shooting] will be telling on themselves.” CAIR Chicago director Ahmed Rehab also condemned the shooting, but couched it by stating, “We stand squarely against vigilante violence — even against those who may be complicit in genocide.”
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