Read our editorial on the Israeli Embassy shooting here.
Elias Rodriguez, the man accused of fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staff members in May, was indicted for murder and federal hate crimes last week.
Unsealed court documents reveal that Rodriguez has been charged with two counts of hate crime resulting in death, in addition to his previous indictments for the murder of a foreign official, related firearms offenses, and assault with intent to kill while armed.
The indictment claims Rodriguez had “expressed support for violence against Israelis,” citing his saying “Free Palestine” and writing statements such as: “The Israelis themselves boast about their own shock at the free hand the Americans have given them to exterminate the Palestinians.”
His current charges include: two counts of first-degree murder while armed, two counts of hate crime resulting in death, one count of murder of a foreign official, and two counts of assault with intent to kill.
Several of these charges carry the potential for life imprisonment or the death penalty, though the Department of Justice has not yet announced whether it will seek capital punishment. The investigation is ongoing, jointly led by the FBI and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
The government’s framing of the attack as antisemitic hate obscures Rodriguez’s stated political motivations. According to previous writings, Rodriguez expressed outrage at U.S.-Israeli-backed genocide in Palestine, framing his actions as a response to Zionist violence, not hatred toward Jewish people. Those close to Rodriguez who have come forward asserted that Rodriguez never espoused antisemitic views, and believe that his actions were politically motivated against Zionism.
As Israel’s depraved genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people intensifies under the protection and funding of the U.S., the anger of the masses is sharpening and erupting in ways that the ruling class seeks to demonize and suppress. From Palestine solidarity encampments to individuals like Mohamed Sabry Soliman—who targeted a Zionist march with Molotov cocktails—any act of rebellion is increasingly branded as “antisemitic,” erasing its political context and just motivations.
Feds Attempt to Set Precedent Conflating Resistance Against Zionism with Antisemitism
According to The United States Sentencing Commission, a federal hate crime includes any crime in which a victim was intentionally selected based on perceived or actual protected traits including “race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation.” A victim’s politics and career are not protected traits.
The gambit of the government is made clear—Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said, “the justice department will not tolerate violence motivated by hatred of faith or national origin, and we will enforce our federal civil rights laws accordingly.” The reactionary attempt to hide US-backed genocide behind “civil rights” stands to set a legal precedent which could see hate crime enhancements added to any action against the occupation of Palestine or in support of the Palestinian resistance.
Rodriguez gave no indication in either the written document on the attack nor verbally that he selected his victims due to perceived or actual national origin or religion, leaving their role as political Zionists and employees of the genocidal Israeli occupation as the only realistic motive. In fact, while Sarah Milgrim happened to be Jewish, she was an American, while Yaron Lischinsky was a German Christian who moved to Israel with the explicit purpose of serving the Israeli state, first in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and then as a diplomat. What the two had in common was their political and material support for the genocidal government of Israel and the occupation of Palestine.
Legally linking resistance to the Zionist occupation of Palestine to antisemitism dates back to the earliest Zionist plans. The US Government aims to enshrine this reactionary distortion into law, making the defense of Rodriguez as a political prisoner an issue of urgent importance. A long time Palestine Solidarity Activist told The Worker, “We must support Elias. It does not matter if the action was premature or not, as some want to debate, he must not be condemned, as the revisionists have done, he is a political prisoner of the war of resistance against the occupation of Palestine. All reaction must be wiped from the face of the earth.”
Image: Eyewitness footage alleged by monopoly media to be Rodriguez in custody, Katie Kalisher social media
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