‘I did it for Gaza’ – Man who murdered Israeli embassy staffers linked to communist group

Elias Rodriguez murdered two Israeli embassy staffers just hours after a radical left-wing group linked to Rodriguez launched a petition accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

By World Israel News Staff

The gunman arrested on Wednesday night in connection with the shooting attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., which left two Israeli embassy employees dead, was a member of a far-left anti-Israel group. He allegedly released a manifesto a day before his attack, justifying his actions.

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith identified 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago as the suspect detained following the murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were shot as they exited an event for young diplomats hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum.

“I did it, I did it for Gaza. Free Palestine,” witnesses say Rodriguez shouted as he was being arrested, before chanting “Free, free Palestine.”

Rodriguez wore a keffiyeh prior to the shooting but later removed it to avoid arousing suspicion.

Employed as an administrative specialist by the American Osteopathic Association, Rodriguez was born and raised in Chicago and earned his degree at the University of Illinois.

He maintained ties with far-left, anti-Israel groups, including a Marxist-Leninist group called the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

In 2017, Rodriguez joined a PSL protest in Chicago against then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

On Wednesday, just hours before the attack, the PSL launched a pledge drive, urging supporters to sign onto a petition accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip and calling for public support for ending U.S. support for Israel.

“A new campaign launched by Palestinians in the diaspora and in the region is aiming to gather 1 million signatures to show the massive opposition that exists around the world to the U.S.-Israeli massacre in Gaza,” the PSL said.

Rodriguez released a manifesto shortly before his D.C. attack, blogger Ken Klippenstein claimed, releasing a document attributed to the gunman.

In the letter attributed to Rodriguez, he accuses “the Israelis” of trying to “exterminate the Palestinians,” dubbing Israel “the genocidal apartheid state.”

The manifesto castigates not only the U.S. government, but also “Western and Arab government complicity.”

Later, Rodriguez appeared to justify his impending attack, arguing that both the “perpetrators” and the “abettors” of the alleged genocide in Gaza have lost their humanity.

“A word about the morality of armed demonstration. Those of us against the genocide take satisfaction in arguing that the perpetrators and abettors have forfeited their humanity,” he said.

“Humanity doesn’t exempt one from accountability. The action would have been morally justified taken 11 years ago during Protective Edge, around the time I personally became acutely aware of our brutal conduct in Palestine. But I think to most Americans such an action would have been illegible, would seem insane. I am glad that today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do.”