An anti-Israel activist group linked to the library takeover at Columbia University put out a statement Friday praising alleged Capital Jewish Museum shooter Elias Rodriguez’s shocking crime as “an act of solidarity and love.”
“What Elias Rodriguez did was an act of solidarity and love for the Palestinian people,” Unity of Fields wrote on X. “If this seems crazy and unhinged to you, ask yourself why you are so well adjusted to a constant stream of disemboweled and starving children—made possible by the country in which you reside.”
In a separate post, the group also touted Rodriguez’s reported manifesto titled, “ESCALATE FOR GAZA, BRING THE WAR HOME,” and provided a link for it.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Unity of Fields is a “radical far-left, anti-Zionist ‘direct action network’ that engages in and/or promotes aggressive, targeted protests and the defacement of property belonging to Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and individuals it considers supportive of Israel or Zionism or ‘complicit’ in Israel’s alleged actions.”
Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, is accused of fatally shooting Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, late Wednesday night as they were leaving the American Jewish Committee’s Young Diplomats Reception. Lischinsky and Milgrim were reportedly just days away from getting engaged when they were gunned down.
After allegedly slaying the young Jewish couple, Rodriguez entered the museum and was detained by authorities before he began shouting “Free, free Palestine!”
On Thursday, Unity of Fields described Rodriguez as “a political prisoner” and said “the people defending him the hardest, like us, are people also facing repression.”
“We don't condemn armed resistance,” the group said in another post. “We don't condemn direct action. We back the left and want this energy to be more organized as opposed to shunned and isolated.”
According to the New York Post, Unity of Fields is the same group that distributed leaflets celebrating a Palestinian terrorist during the takeover of Columbia’s Butler Library by anti-Israel protesters on May 7. NYPD officers were ultimately called in to clear the library’s vandalized reading room.
The Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students X account accused Unity of Fields of being “intimately involved in the planning and execution of antisemitic protest and propaganda activities at @Columbia.”
“Now they’re actively cheering on yesterday’s tragic DC murder of 2 Israeli embassy staffers,” it wrote. “This is what their ultimate goal is, and why we keep saying that these protests make the Jewish campus community unsafe.”
In a reply, the Israel War Room X account said that Unity of Fields’ account “is inciting domestic terrorism,” and tagged Justice Department Civil Rights Division Senior Counsel Leo Terrell, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.