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The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is facing internal turmoil after one of its radical factions praised a deadly shooting outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. — and members across the country began debating whether the act should be condemned at all.
Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old progressive activist, was arrested for the alleged May 21 killing of two embassy staffers, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, CatholicVote reported. Witnesses say he shouted “Free, free Palestine” as police took him into custody. Milgrim, a 26-year-old Jewish woman from Kansas, was reportedly shot again as she tried to crawl away.
Initially, the New York City chapter of the DSA issued a statement rejecting the violence. But as Frannie Block and Olivia Reingold reported in The Free Press, that statement sparked immediate backlash within the group.
“Is it good to condemn violence against a genocidal apartheid state?” one member asked on the group’s message board, drawing heart and applause emojis in response. Others found the condemnation “hurtful” and “irresponsible.”
The controversy escalated when the Liberation Caucus, a self-described “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist” subgroup within DSA, co-signed a statement calling the shooting “a legitimate act of resistance against the zionist state.” The post — originally from militant group Unity of Fields — urged supporters to donate to Rodriguez’s jail commissary and referred to him as a political prisoner.
The group also pressed Zohran Mamdani, a DSA-backed New York State assemblyman running for mayor, to support the shooter’s actions, The Free Press authors reported.
Mamdani has condemned the rise in antisemitic violence but has not commented on the statement praising the attack. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, now leading in the polls, condemned the endorsement and called on Mamdani and other DSA-aligned candidates to do the same.
The national DSA eventually responded with a statement rejecting vigilante violence and condemning the murders. It also attempted to distance itself from the Liberation Caucus, saying its views “are not the stance of DSA.”
Still, some within the caucus defended their position.
“Signing a statement in support of a political prisoner is not wrong,” a member from St. Louis wrote on the DSA’s message board, “and I frankly don’t think we have anything to apologize for.”
