GAZA comes to Washington, DC
We cannot let this Shooting Change the Conversation
On May 21, two members of the Israeli embassy staff were gunned down outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. The suspect, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, shouted “free, free Palestine” following the shooting. He is now under arrest.1
Israel blames the attack on antisemitism. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, said the shooting was a direct consequence of antisemitism and anti-Israel incitement. Public statements about Israel’s alleged complicity in “genocide, crimes against humanity, and murdering babies paved the way exactly for such murders.”1
Opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza is not antisemitism, it is taking a stand against genocide!
Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. The IDF launched a major new ground offensive with the aim of taking control of the entire Gaza Strip. Israeli military attacks by air, land and sea are killing hundreds of Palestinians each day. The attacks are leveling houses, hospitals, schools, and mosques. Israel intends to make Gaza unlivable, to drive out the Palestinians.
Israel is not waging war on the Palestinian people, it is committing mass murder and the primary victims are children. In March, Israel began a total blockade of Gaza. For over two months, there has been no food, no water, no medical supplies. The U.N.’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza if more aid does not enter the besieged territory. “The suffering is really beyond description.”2
We cannot allow this shooting to change the conversation from genocide to antisemitism.
The only way to stop the genocide is to stop the war in Gaza. Killing innocent people is not the way to do it! The two young people who were murdered on Wednesday do not run the Israeli government, they only work for it. They were not on the ground in Gaza actively destroying homes, hospitals and schools or blocking aid from entering Gaza. They were part of the system, but not the system.
If we are going to stop the genocide in Gaza, we need to support and join the students that are leading this struggle. In the past month, there were protests against the war on Gaza on more than 130 US colleges and universities.3 Student hunger strikes against the war on Gaza war have taken place at 17 universities4 and brave students such as Cecilia Culver5 are speaking up at graduation ceremonies demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza.
We need to Kill the System, not the People who Work for it. For us, that means a new way of taking care of business in America, a way that relies on cooperation and peaceful resolution rather than competition and mass murder.
Let’s talk.
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/05/22/israeli-embassy-staff-dc-shooting-capital-jewish-museum/
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/20/thousands-of-gazas-children-face-imminent-death-under-israeli-siege-un
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68996066
- https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/05/11/six-yalies4palestine-members-begin-hunger-strike/
- https://revolutionary-news-today.org/war/student-stands-in-solidarity-with-palestine/
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