Suspect in deadly DC shooting of Israeli embassy workers allegedly wrote manifesto
Washington DC - A manifesto allegedly written by the main suspect in the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy workers at a Jewish museum in Washington DC outlines the motivation for the act.
Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein published what he believes to be an "authentic" 900-plus-word document authored by Elias Rodriguez, the suspected shooter detained at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Police say Rodriguez approached Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim – a couple working for the Israeli embassy – and shot them dead with a handgun.
He then entered the museum and was initially mistaken for a bystander, before he allegedly admitted to a witness: "I did it. I did this for Gaza."
While being detained by police, Rodriguez repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine."
Alleged manifesto calls out impunity in Israel's destruction of Gaza
The manifesto attributed to the 30-year-old from Chicago highlights the horrific atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza, where A 20-month-long campaign of mass killing and starvation has reached what many scholars and experts are calling a full-blown genocide.
Despite unprecedented demonstrations in the US, the text notes that "Israelis themselves boast about their own shock at the free hand the Americans have given them to exterminate the Palestinians."
"Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged," it continues, "they'll do without public opinion then, criminalize it where they can, suffocate it with bland reassurances that they're doing all they can to restrain Israel where it cannot criminalize protest outright."
Referencing the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell, an active Air Force member who ended his life in protest at the US-enabled slaughter, the alleged manifesto insists: "Their sacrifices were not made in vain."
It then moves on to the "morality of armed demonstration," arguing that "(the) impunity that representatives of our government feel at abetting this slaughter should be revealed as an illusion."
"Humanity doesn't exempt one from accountability," the document reads, before expressing hope that in the current context, "there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do."
Rodriguez is currently in custody and has been charged with murder. Authorities are also investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism and a hate crime.
FBI agents on Thursday raided a Chicago address allegedly tied to him.
Cover photo: Collage: LinkedIn/REUTERS