The suspect in the killings of two Israeli Embassy workers in Washington on Wednesday shouted “Free, free Palestine” as he was arrested, chanting the same slogan, in the same cadence, that has rung out in pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses and on American streets for years.
But the ties of Elias Rodriguez, the suspect, to the wider pro-Palestinian movement remain unclear. Was he a vigilante, upset at the deaths of civilians in Gaza, who decided on his own that violence was the only way forward? Or was he influenced by more extreme pro-Palestinian organizations that reach Americans online and that glorify the actions of Hamas and other armed resistance groups?
In either case, the killings of the Israeli embassy workers, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, who grew up in Israel and Germany, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, who was from Kansas, cast a harsh spotlight on the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States and the impact even peaceful protests might be having on attitudes against people connected to Israel.
The killings also risked painting all pro-Palestinian activists, the vast majority of whom do not engage in violence, with the same brush, which could lead to further repression of their movement. The tragedy occurred just as the movement has been trying to sustain attention in the United States on a blockade by Israel that has put Gaza residents at risk of widespread starvation.
Oren Segal, senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence at the Anti-Defamation League, said that while attending a rally or being a member of pro-Palestinian groups does not predict violence, the broader ecosystem being created, particularly online, by groups strongly opposed to Israel, “created an environment that made the tragedy last night more likely.”
“What people are hearing is a regular drumbeat: Israel is evil, supporters of Israel are evil, and we need to do anything by any means to fight back,” he said. “And many of them are conflating Jews with the policies of Israel, too.”
But the pro-Palestinian movement has asserted that it can criticize Israel and the war in Gaza without being antisemitic, and multiple organizations rushed to condemn the killings on Thursday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, called the violence “completely unacceptable” and said that it does not represent the millions of Americans peacefully supporting an end to U.S. support for the Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Such violence only undermines the pursuit of justice,” the organization said in a statement. “Peaceful protest, civil disobedience and political engagement are the only appropriate and acceptable tools” to achieve that change.
Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group that regularly protests against the war in Gaza, also condemned the killings. “We are grounded first and foremost in the belief that all human life is precious, which is precisely why we are struggling for a world in which all people can live in safety and dignity,” it wrote in a statement.
The pro-Palestinian movement that burst into the public consciousness after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 has deep roots and has gone through multiple transformations. But it has long included a wide spectrum of activists, with a variety of views on the role violent resistance should play in achieving a Palestinian state.
In the United States, protesters who chant “Free, free Palestine” are almost always using tactics of nonviolent resistance. But the groups that organize behind Free Palestine banners also vary in their philosophies. Some advocate complete nonviolence in their broader approach, akin to antiwar protesters. Others back the right of Palestinians to engage in armed resistance against Israel, which they consider a right under international law, because they consider Israel the occupier of Palestinian lands.
Such groups frequently quote a 1990 U.N. resolution that recognizes the right of occupied people to fight against “colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”
Even among groups that back the right of Palestinians to resist with force, however, there are variations. Some chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, for example, the most organized pro-Palestinian group on many college campuses, have embraced the Thawabit, a set of principles written by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1977 that is considered central to the Palestinian national cause. Among them is the right of resistance, including through armed struggle.
But Students for Justice in Palestine does not support of the use of violence in the United States, and instead focuses on civil disobedience and nonviolent tactics, like the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, to pressure Israel.
Other groups push the line further, openly glorifying armed resistance by organizations that the United States considers terrorist organizations. As repression of protests on college campuses grew last year, a smaller group of students adopted some of the rhetoric of the hard-line groups, while more moderate students peeled away.
Among at least some of those hard-line groups, there was some hint of acceptance about the Israeli embassy killings on Thursday, even as Mr. Rodriguez was being charged with first-degree murder and other crimes.
Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of the Samidoun Network, which the U.S. Treasury Department last year designated a sham charity that serves as an international fund-raiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization, wrote on Telegram that in the face of the stifling of nonviolent protest, it is only to be expected that some people will escalate in an attempt to stop the deaths in Gaza.
Unity of Fields, a far left pro-Palestinian group that describes itself as an “anti-imperalist propaganda front for the international popular cradle of resistance,” posted a video of Mr. Rodriguez’s arrest on its Telegram account on Thursday.
It compared the killings Mr. Rodriguez is charged with the actions of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, and who has been lionized by some.
“How can people embrace, celebrate and support Luigi’s political violence (which was also a good thing) but not support Elias Rodriguez, whose action is far more politically salient?” Unity of Fields asked.
The contradiction inherent in a nonviolent protest movement that sometimes backs armed struggle for Palestinian freedom has long vexed public safety authorities and college administration officials, who are responsible for handling pro-Palestinian protesters.
Many Jews, particularly those who consider Israel a core part of Jewish identity, accuse pro-Palestinian protesters of being broadly antisemitic and dangerous in their rhetoric. They see any language that backs armed resistance against the Jewish state as threatening and supportive of terrorism.
Many in the pro-Palestinian movement, however, insist that while they are anti-Zionist, or against the state of Israel, they are not against Jews. Instead, they say they are fighting against the killing of Palestinians and for the establishment of a free, flourishing Palestinian state.
Sharon Otterman is a Times reporter covering higher education, public health and other issues facing New York City.
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