From The MEMRI TV Archives: Pro-Palestinian Activist Who Killed Two People At Jewish DC Event For Young Professionals While Yelling 'Free Palestine!' Was Affiliated With Extremist 'Party For Socialism

Memri

22-05-2025

The following clips from the MEMRI TV archives feature pro-Palestinian activists from the Party for Socialism and Liberation speaking at protests and demonstrations calling for martyrdom and chanting death to Israel! and death to America!
In the May 21, 2025, shooting attack that took place outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., where the American Jewish Committee was holding an event for young professionals, the accused suspect, Elias Rodriguez, was a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The attacker yelled Free Palestine! during the shooting, which resulted in the deaths of two Israeli Embassy employees.
On May 22, the Party for Socialism an Liberation published a post on X denying any connection to the DC shooting.[1] It wrote: "We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it."
Party For Socialism And Liberation Posts Video Of November 2023 Protest Against VP Kamala Harris: When It Comes To Genocide There Is No Lesser Of Two Evils; We're Done Supporting Politicians Just Because Of Their Background And What They Look Like
On July 23, 2024, following Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for the November presidential elections, the Party for Socialism and Liberation posted a video on X of a November protest against a Kamala Harris fundraiser in Boston. In the video, a protester said that when it comes to genocide there is no lesser of two evils. You are either on the right side of history or on the wrong side of history! He added: We're done supporting politicians just because of what they look like or what their background is.
Click here or below to view the clip on MEMRI TV:
Speaker: "We were told that we should vote for them, because they're the 'lesser of two evils.' When it comes to genocide, there is no lesser of two evils! You are either on the right side of history, or on the wrong side of history! Her campaign communications director said, 'Kamala Harris's support for Israel is central to who she is.' And now, with over 10,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza in a month, with almost half of them being children, we can see exactly what that means! It means support for genocide, support for colonialism, support for oppression. That is central to who Kamala Harris is."
Speakers At Raleigh, NC Demonstration Salute Rocket Attacks On Israel; Transgender Activist Claire Clark: The Palestinians, Muslims Are No Enemies Of The LGBTQ Community – My Enemies Are In Israel, The White House, Congress, Supreme Court
At a May 13, 2023 Nakba Day rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Lebanese-American environmental organizer Rania Masri said that Israel has no right to exist and the Palestinians have the right to armed resistance. She saluted the armed fighters in Palestine and the rockets launched from Gaza. Dana Al-Hasan, an American activist who is also a postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), said that the fighters in Gaza are coordinating with freedom-fighters in Jenin and in Al-Aqsa, and she praised the unity between the various armed Palestinian factions.
American transgender rights activist Claire Clark of the Party for Socialism and Liberation said that claims that she should support Israel because of the supposed LGBTQ-friendly policies of the Zionist government and the supposed enmity of the Muslims and Palestinian people are a bold-faced lie. She added: There is not one enemy of mine among the Palestinian people fighting for their freedom. Clark also said that her enemies, who are the enemies of the entire LGBTQ community, are in the United States.
Another activist named Iyad spoke in Arabic and said that the Palestinian and Muslim people, as well as the free people of the world, say to the resistance in Palestine: Go fight, we are fighting with you. Footage of the rally was uploaded to DART VIDEO channel on YouTube. For more about rallies held on Nakba Day 2023, see MEMRI TV clips 10292, 10299, and 10296.
Click here or below to view the clip on MEMRI TV:
Claire Clark: "I come to you today, as a transgender woman, as a queer woman, as a member of the LGBTQ community. I come to you today to denounce the duplicitous and divisive propaganda spread by the occupation regime.
[...]
"Them telling [me] that I should support the occupation, I should support the settlers, I should support the apartheid regime, and I should oppose the resistance of Palestinians. And why? Because of the allegedly LGBTQ-friendly policies of the Zionist government and the supposed enmity of the Muslims and Palestinian people. But I am here to tell you, that is a bold-faced lie. It doesn't matter how many times the politicians and the talking heads repeat it, or how cleverly they tell it – it is a lie!
"I have no friends in the Zionist regime. I have no friends among the settlers.
"I have no friends in the White House, in the halls of Congress, the chambers of the Supreme Court, or the corporate boardrooms where exploitation is turned into profit through the malign sorcery of capitalism, and there is not one enemy of mine among the Palestinian people fighting for their freedom.
"My enemies, the enemies, the enemies of the LGBTQ people, are right here, in these United States.
[...]
"They say that Palestinians are my enemy, but that is a lie. The commitment of the Palestinian people to justice is legendary, it is a proven fact, and it is sealed in the blood of martyrs."
Pro-DPRK Activist Ju-Hyun At NYC Pro-Palestine Rally: North Korea Has Been Arming And Training The Palestinians For Decades; Palestinians And Koreans Have A Common Enemy
On July 9, 2023, the Palestinian Youth Movement, as well as other organizations, held a rally in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City in support of the Palestinian resistance in Jenin and of imprisoned terrorist Walid Daqqa, who was part of a cell of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) comprised of Arab Israelis who kidnapped IDF soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984, gouged his eyes out, and castrated him before shooting him dead.
At the rally, Korean activist Ju-Hyun, who belongs to Nodutol, a pro-Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPKR) organization promoting the reunification of Korea, expressed his support for Palestinian resistance by any means necessary. He stated that North Korea has been training and arming the Palestinian resistance for decades. He quoted North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung as saying that the Korean people will resolutely support the Palestinian people in liberating their homeland. Ju-Hyun also said that Koreans and Palestinians have a common enemy and that they will have a common future when imperialism has fallen, and we have built socialism in its stead.
In addition, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation who attended the rally said: We do not just mourn our martyrs, we come here to be like our martyrs.
Video of the rally was posted on the Instagram page of the Palestinian Youth Movement. Other organizations who participated in the event include: American Muslims for Palestine, New York 4 Palestine, Al-Awda NY, Samidoun, Within Our Lifetime, CUNY for Palestine, Palestinian Assembly Liberation.
Click here or below to view the clip on MEMRI TV:
Member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation: "They wish to threaten us, they wish to kill us, and they wish for us to be scared of the martyrs they make of the Palestinian people.
[...]
"We do not just mourn our martyrs, we come here to be like our martyrs. Don't we?"
At Brooklyn 'No To Annexation' Rally, Speakers Call To Abolish Police, Israel, And U.S. Government, Crowd Chants: 'Death To America!', 'Millions Of Martyrs Are Marching To Jerusalem!'; Activist: 'F*ck The NYPD!' When A Precinct Or A Cop Car Burns, I Feel Closer To Palestine
Within Our Lifetime, a NY-based pro-Palestinian organization, organized a Day of Rage rally against Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank. The event, which was called No to Annexation, was held in Brooklyn on July 1, 2020, and the video of the event was uploaded to the organizers' Facebook page. During the rally, an activist named Jamie from the pro-North Korea Nodutdol organization told the protestors that Palestine will be liberated, that Korea will be unified, and that the U.S. and its puppet governments will be no more. Another speaker, Amin Hosain of Decolonize This Place, an anti-gentrification movement, said that the police are the enemy and an impediment to the liberation of Palestine, and he said that when NYPD cop cars burn, a revolutionary country is being awakened.
Dequi Kioni Sadiki, wife of former Black Panther Seko Odinga, said that the European Jews who force Palestinians into refugee camps, concentration camps, and killing fields are related to the Europeans who forced Africans into slavery and prison death camps. She added that Palestine must be free like the stolen land of North America, which she referred to as Turtle Island. A representative of the Puerto Rican New York Borica Resistance movement said that the police, Israel, and the U.S. government must be abolished. Nerdeen Kiswani from Within Our Lifetime said that Palestinians do not only want to return to Gaza and the West Bank, but that they want all of Palestine. Wrapped in a red flag, a man named Rob from the Party for Socialism and Liberation led the crowd in chant in Arabic: Death to Israel! Death to America! In addition, the crowd chanted: Millions of martyrs are marching to Jerusalem!... The gates of Al-Aqsa are made of iron – its gates will only be opened by a martyr... From Gaza to Minnesota, globalize the Intifada!... Black lives matter!... Not just annexation, not just occupation, fight for liberation – bring the whole thing down! For more about Nerdeen Kiswani and Within Our Lifetime, see MEMRI TV clips No. 6100, No. 6311, and No. 7628.
Click here or below to view the clip on MEMRI TV:
Within Our Lifetime, a NY-based pro-Palestinian organization, organized a "Day of Rage" rally against Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank. The event, which was called "No to Annexation," was held in Brooklyn on July 1, 2020, and the video of the event was uploaded to the organizers' Facebook page. During the rally, an activist named Jamie from the pro-North Korea Nodutdol organization told the protestors that Palestine will be liberated, that Korea will be unified, and that the U.S. and its puppet governments will be "no more." Another speaker, Amin Hosain of Decolonize This Place, an anti-gentrification movement, said that the police are the enemy and an impediment to the liberation of Palestine, and he said that when NYPD cop cars burn, a "revolutionary country" is being awakened.
Rob, Party for Socialism and Liberation: "Death to Israel!"
Crowd: "Death to Israel!"
Rob: "Death to America!"
Crowd: "Death to America!"