Connect with us

RSS

‘Globalize the Intifada’: Scholars Link DC Murder of Israeli Embassy Aides to Campus Antisemitism, Incitement

Members of the group Misaskim clean blood off the ground where two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, May 22, 2025. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein via Reuters Connect.

Rampant antisemitism and anti-Israel activism on university campuses helped lay the groundwork for Wednesday night’s fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers leaving a Jewish event in Washington, DC, according to experts who spoke with The Algemeiner.

Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a couple about to become engaged, were murdered as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young professionals and diplomatic staff hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old left-wing and anti-Israel activist from Chicago, was charged on Thursday in US federal court with murdering the Israeli embassy aides. According to witnesses and federal agents, he chanted, “Free, Free Palestine” — a war cry that has been a staple of the pro-Hamas movement on campuses across the US. An affidavit filed by federal authorities in support of the criminal complaint charging Rodriguez revealed that he also said at the scene of the shooting, “I did it for Palestine; I did it for Gaza.”

On Thursday, a Middle East scholar and the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Asaf Romirowsky, who is Jewish, told The Algemeiner that Rodriguez’s alleged crimes can be linked to higher education’s normalizing of antisemitism.

“Last night’s heinous acts by Elias Rodriguez once again show how normalized antisemitism has become, being tolerated and institutionalized in our universities and media for decades,” Romirowsky explained. “Words have meaning and consequences and there is a reason why slogans used on campus calling for ‘resistance,’ ‘globalize the intifada,’ and ‘Free Palestine,’ are actionable Islamist terroristic commands synonymous to how the perpetrators of 10/7 [Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel] acted.”

He added, “There is no surprise that within hours after the murders he received praise from Moustafa Bayram, a member of Hezbollah.”

Esteemed Jewish scholar Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, founder and executive director of antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative, noted that in the days leading up to the shooting, pro-Hamas campus groups called on their supporters to “escalate” their conduct.

“They give us no choice,” a campus group which calls itself Columbia University Apartheid Divesthttps://www.algemeiner.com/2025/04/01/meta-boots-anti-zionist-columbia-university-group-instagram/ wrote in a Substack email blast shared on Wednesday morning, some 12 hours before the murders. “We will continue to disrupt the imperialist system that thrives on bloodshed and exploitation … We can disrupt and bring these rotten institutions to their graves.”

CUAD was preceded by other activists whose rhetoric portrayed Israel and the Jews who live there as evil.

On Saturday, a graduating George Washington University senior, Cecilia Culver, accused Israel of targeting Palestinians “simply for [their] remaining in the country of their ancestors” and said that GW students are passive contributors to the “imperialist system.” An economics and statistics major, Culver went on to charge that the university has “blood on its hands.”

Similar remarks were uttered during New York University’s commencement ceremony for the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

“I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been live streamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” said Logan Rozos, who presented administrators with a false draft of his speech, leaving them unaware of his intention to promote notions frequently trafficked by neo-Nazis and jihadist terror groups. “I want to say that I condemn this genocide and complicity in this genocide.”

The connection between the incidents is undeniable, Rossman-Benjamin told The Algemeiner.

“The missing link between the commencement speeches and the shooter’s action is the CUAD bulletin, and its call to ‘escalate,’ which the commencement speakers and shooter each did in their own way,” she said. “What we also understand is that the shooter apparently claimed, ‘The action [killing] would have been morally justified taken 11 years ago.’” Around 11 years ago is when he would be 19 years old, around the time he was at UIC [the University of Illinois Chicago]. It could be where he became radicalized.”

Domestic terrorism may be the end game for the over 150 pro-Hamas groups operating on colleges campuses and elsewhere across the US to foster anti-Israel demonstrations, according to a September 2024 report published by the Capital Research Center (CRC) think tank.

“The movement contains militant elements pushing it toward a wider, more severe campaign focused on property destruction and violence properly described as domestic terrorism,” researcher Ryan Mauro wrote in the report, titled “Marching Toward Violence: The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement.” “It demands the ‘dismantlement’ of America’s ‘colonialist,’ ‘imperialist,’ or ‘capitalist,’ system, often calling for the US to be abolished as a country.”

He continued, “These revolutionary goals are held by the two different factions of the anti-Israel extremist groups. The first faction combines Islamists, communists/Marxists, and anarchists. The second faction consists of groups with white supremacist/nationalist ideologies. They share Jew-hatred, anti-Americanism, and the goal of sparking a revolutionary uprising.”

The group most responsible for the anti-Israel protest movement is Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), according to the report.

Drawing on statements issued and actions taken by SJP and their collaborators, Mauro made the case that toolkits published by SJP herald Hamas for perpetrating mass casualties of civilians; SJP has endorsed Iran’s attacks on Israel as well as its stated intention to overturn the US-led world order; and other groups under its umbrella have called on followers to “Bring the Intifada Home.” Such activities, the report explained, accelerated after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, which pro-Hamas groups perceived as an inflection point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an opportunity. By flooding the internet and college campuses with agitprop and staging activities — protests or vandalisms — they hoped to manufacture a critical mass of youth support for their ideas, thus creating an army of revolutionaries willing to adopt Hamas’s aims as their own.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ‘Globalize the Intifada’: Scholars Link DC Murder of Israeli Embassy Aides to Campus Antisemitism, Incitement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

Continue Reading

RSS

Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

Continue Reading

RSS

Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News