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Israeli Embassy staff members fatally shot were about to get engaged

Israeli Embassy staff members fatally shot were about to get engaged

Yahoo22-05-2025

The victims of a fatal shooting outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., have been identified as a young couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy and were on the verge of getting engaged.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, and referred to them both as embassy staff members. The Israeli Embassy said the pair were "in the prime of their lives."
"No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss," the embassy said in a statement on social media. "Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time."
Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., told reporters the pair was a "beautiful couple," and said Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring "with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem." World leaders quickly condemned the slayings.
Sarah Lynn Milgrim
Sarah Lynn Milgrim's father, Robert Milgrim, said she started working for the embassy in November 2023 after earning a bachelor's degree at Kansas University and two master's degrees — one at American University in Washington, D.C., and the other at the United Nations for Peace University in Costa Rica. Her degrees focused on international studies and policy, he said, and she had been hired at the Israeli Embassy before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and touched off the war in Gaza.
"This is her first real job after finishing her six years of education," Robert Milgrim told CBS News.
The Kansas University chapter of Hillel, the world's largest Jewish campus life organization, remembered Milgrim as a "beloved alum" whose "bright spirit and passion for the Jewish community touched everyone fortunate enough to know her." She served on the organization's board of directors, KU Hillel said.
Before working for the embassy, Milgrim spent several summers in Israel where she worked with "Palestinian and Israeli groups to bring them together," Robert Milgrim said. She made both Palestinian and Israeli friends on those trips, he said.
"She loves Israel and she loved everybody that lived in the Middle East," Robert Milgrim said.
Robert Milgrim said his daughter met Lischinsky while earning a master's degree at American University. The two started dating weeks after they met, and the family "loved" Lischinsky, her father said.
He said the couple was flying to Israel on Sunday to meet Lischinsky's family in Jerusalem, adding that he was told Lischinsky had been planning to propose on the trip.
"We didn't know that he was going to propose then," Robert Milgrim said. "And the ambassador told us that he knew that he'd bought the ring and was going to present it to her in Jerusalem."
Yaron Lischinsky
Lischinsky was an Israeli and German dual national. He "spoke fondly of growing up" in Bavaria, a region of southern Germany, and was "very much in love with his childhood home" there, said Lore Herzog, who had known Lischinsky since 2018. He came from a large family, Herzog said.
"He loved them all dearly and spoke about them all the time," Herzog said. Herzog remembered Lischinsky as a "very morally upright person with a very strong sense of justice." The two met while living in Jerusalem.
"Yaron was super cheerful and seemed to really love everything he did," said Herzog, who now lives in Amsterdam. "It was his dream to work in politics and international relations."
Israeli diplomat Ron Prosor told The Asssociated Press said that Lischinsky was a student of his at an Israeli university.
Lischinsky was Christian, Prosor said, and a "a true lover of Israel" who had served in the military "and chose to dedicate his life to the state of Israel."
On his LinkedIn profile, Lischinsky said he advocated for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding. He said that he was an "ardent believer" in deepening Israel's ties with the Arab world through the U.S.-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords, the AP reported.
Suspect in custody
Elias Rodriguez has been named as a suspect in the shooting and is currently in custody, officials said. He was charged on Thursday with murder of foreign officials, two counts of first-degree murder and other counts.
Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, was initially "observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum" before he approached a group of four people, "produced a handgun," and shot Lischinsky and Milgrim, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said in a news briefing.
Rodriguez entered the Jewish Museum immediately after the shooting, and was arrested by museum security, Smith said. Witness video shows Rodriguez shouted "Free Palestine" while being arrested.
Rodriguez had discarded the weapon used in the shooting, but told police where it was. It has since been recovered, Smith said.
Rodriguez also "chanted 'free, free Palestine,' while in custody," Smith said.
Metropolitan Police said Rodriguez didn't pop up on an initial search of crime databases and wasn't on the radar of law enforcement agencies. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city's police department and the FBI will be investigating the shooting.
A Justice Department source told CBS News that Rodriguez may make his first court appearance as early as Thursday.
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University of Michigan denounced for using private investigators to surveil student protesters
University of Michigan denounced for using private investigators to surveil student protesters

Yahoo

time27 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

University of Michigan denounced for using private investigators to surveil student protesters

Pro-Palestinian protest on the UM campus on February 20, 2025 | Photo by Erick Diaz Veliz Josiah Walker has one year left until he graduates from the University of Michigan. However, since last summer, his college life had undergone an abrupt change when he realized he was being followed and recorded by several people while going about his daily activities on campus and around Ann Arbor. As it turns out, he wasn't the only one. According to The Guardian, they all shared the same pattern: the pro-Palestinian movement on campus. On Friday, The Guardian published a report in which a group of students accused the University of Michigan of hiring private undercover investigators from the Detroit-based firm City Shield to conduct covert surveillance both on and off campus of student pro-Palestinian activist groups. Walker is among the five U of M students who were interviewed in the report. They declared that they were trailed, eavesdropped on, recorded, and verbally harassed by what they considered intimidation tactics from the university. They said they recognized dozens of investigators, often working in teams, who were behind their steps around campus and Ann Arbor, sometimes sitting at nearby tables at cafes and bars. 'The same people and vehicles kept popping up everywhere I went on and even off campus. Each individual would execute some combination of recording and following me,' Walker told the Advance. The Guardian investigation determined that the private investigators are employees of City Shield. According to university spending records from June 16, 2023, through September 15, 2024, the university paid at least $850,000 to City Shield's parent company, Ameri-Shield. 'The university had used a lot of its own resources to uplift my previous involvements and accomplishments. Now, I'm on the other side where the university is using those same resources to try to destroy my future and, quite frankly, seriously injure or kill me,' Walker told the Advance. These students started to record, identify, and confront the undercover investigators by themselves, resulting in tense interactions recorded on video. Katarina Keating, also one of the students interviewed by The Guardian, is a PhD candidate and a member of the Graduate Employees' Organization. She recounted to the Advance that she noticed she was being followed in early November last year. She said she started seeing the same person following her after protests or events, and even weekly in the last months. Walker said he began to feel watched last year when he noticed that many people were continuously recording and following him; therefore, he started to record them in return. He shared the videos of those encounters with the Advance, also posted in the report, of himself recognizing and confronting those The Guardian reported are undercover investigators, including an interaction in which the alleged investigator, who is white, appears to falsely accuse Walker, who is Black, of trying to steal his wallet. During another of those interactions, he says a car from where he was being recorded almost hit him, making him fear for his life since then. 'The threat has already presented itself. This is what City Shield employees or university contractors were willing to do on camera when it was very obvious that I was recording them as I was holding my phone at chest level. There's no telling what they're willing to do off-camera,' Walker said to the Advance. Another video Walker shared with the Advance shows the same man sitting inside his parked vehicle and initially pretending to be hearing impaired, including speaking in an impeded manner, before switching to a normal voice. Michigan Advance requested an interview with a university spokesperson, but instead were directed to a public email from the interim university President, Domenico Grasso, regarding the investigation. 'At the University of Michigan, simultaneously keeping our campus safe and welcoming is a top priority,' Grasso said. 'We recently learned that an employee of one of our security contractors has acted in ways that go against our values and directives. What happened was disturbing, unacceptable, and unethical, and we will not tolerate it.' Additionally, Grasso said the university was terminating all contracts with vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus. The university also provided a campus security statement issued Sunday, saying that 'recent media reports have mischaracterized the role of contract security personnel who were engaged solely to support campus safety efforts,' and denying that the university had requested the services of private investigators to monitor U of M students on or off campus. Both statements explained that as part of a 'security strategy' during 2024, the university augmented contracts with outside firms of plainclothes security personnel in order to 'provide discreet awareness of potential illegal activities without escalating tensions,' said the updated statement. Grasso recommended reporting any inappropriate behavior by contractors or employees to campus police or the Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX Office. 'It's certainly not 'safe and welcoming' for the dozens of students and community members who have been banned from campus for participating in protests. Grasso should reverse these campus bans next,' said Keating to the Advance in response to the statements. Walker declared to the Advance that, as of the time of publication of this report, U of M has not reached him to offer support or in response to the investigation by The Guardian, and so far, he believes he is still being monitored. 'It's really unfortunate. There's no doubt that if City Shield operatives or university police see me, they're going to continue to monitor me. They'll probably just try to be more discreet about it,' said Walker. The student accusations come as part of a series of rifts in the already strained relationship between the university administration and pro-Palestinian groups, including accusations of vandalism against individuals in the groups, and alleged selective targeting by authorities. Walker was among a group of students charged in September 2024 with trespassing and/or resisting university police during the raid on the pro-Palestinian encampment at the Ann Arbor campus' Diag in May 2024. The trespassing charges were later dismissed. In April, the pro-Palestinian activist group, TAHRIR coalition, alleged that some of their members were targeted in raids by the FBI at the houses where they live, authorized by Attorney General Dana Nessel. The raids were carried out in Ypsilanti, Canton, and Ann Arbor by unmarked vehicles accompanied by the Michigan State Police and local police officers. Pro-Palestinian activists were also accused by the university police earlier this month of damaging and vandalizing hundreds of flowers at the university's famed peony gardens after they found papers signed with pro-Palestinian slogans. 'The university has 100% selectively prioritized rights such as freedom of expression and movement. If a cause has even a remotely favorable view of Palestine or Palestinians, one can expect fierce university opposition,' Walker told the Advance. Despite the actions of the university and its contractors being publicized, Walker doesn't feel completely at ease because he worries the university could still take various measures against him. 'On one hand, it feels liberating to be able to raise awareness about what's been happening,' Walker told the Advance. 'On the other hand, I can't help but know that the university police department and City Shield are probably looking for ways to retaliate against me.' Both Walker and Keating say college life is no longer the same and that they no longer socialize freely, to the point that Walker warns his close friends to be careful around him so they don't endanger themselves, while Keating is always watching people around her. 'My life has changed in that I'm on high alert any time I am walking around campus, which is essentially every workday. I'm always looking around to see if someone is watching or following me,' Keating said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

Why the wrong memorial will water down the Holocaust
Why the wrong memorial will water down the Holocaust

Yahoo

time27 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Why the wrong memorial will water down the Holocaust

On Wednesday, the Holocaust Memorial Bill returns to the House of Lords. What a waste of energy over seven and more years this project has been. The motives are good. Unfortunately, the idea is not. In the great battle against growing anti-Semitism in our society, precious weapons are being mistargeted. There are strong second-order objections to the memorial and its accompanying 'learning centre'. They include the vast cost, over £200 million; the lack of room in Victoria Tower Gardens and the loss of green space; the security risk at the heart of government and Parliament which the police and parliamentary authorities increasingly fail to control; and the fact that the gardens will soon be overcrowded by the overspill for the coming 30-year project to restore the fabric of the Houses of Parliament next door. There will be parliamentary amendments tomorrow to address these last two points. Most of the Bill's opponents, many of whom are Jewish, do want a memorial, but a much smaller and more beautiful one. The present design is a grandiose hand-me-down, by the somewhat discredited architect David Adjaye, already used elsewhere. Opponents also do not want the learning centre. Tristram Hunt, the distinguished director of the V&A, thinks it could be much better managed at the Imperial War Museum. The key objection relates to what is really being commemorated. If you track the history of Holocaust Memorial Day since it was instituted a quarter of a century ago, you will find increasing pressure to water down the concept. There have been several occasions – ITV's Good Morning Britain this year, for example – in which coverage has entirely failed to mention the Jews at all, let alone the fact that the Holocaust killed six million of them. People such as the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, unfailingly hostile to Israel and previously friendly to murderous Hamas, have thus found it possible to take part in Holocaust Memorial Day without having to confront the grim truth of history. Over time, the uniqueness of the Jewish experience thus slips away. A process begins in which the word 'Holocaust' is taken to stand for any persecution of any group by any other group. From there, it is a short step to suggesting, as pro-Gaza mobs always do, that Israel itself is committing genocide against Palestinians. This is not an isolated outbreak of a few fanatics, but a deliberate plan to strip the Jewish state – and all Jews – of their moral authority. The ultimate aim is to preach the equation 'Jews = Israel = Nazis'. This libel is so widespread as to have become one of the main tropes of anti-Semitism. The danger is that the wrong sort of commemoration will facilitate this. Delegations from anti-Israel countries and 'humanitarian' organisations emerging from Parliament will stroll into Victoria Tower Gardens, pose outside the Holocaust Memorial and deliver their piece to camera about alleged war crimes, starvation of children etc. You can just imagine the ineffable Greta Thunberg doing exactly that. Sad to say, both main political parties are putting on whips to get the memorial Bill through Parliament. This suggests an underlying uncertainty about the rightness of their cause. Traditionally, votes on matters of conscience are not whipped. Surely Holocaust commemoration is a classic conscience issue in which party considerations have no place. I fear that establishment politicians, frightened of being labelled anti-Semitic, have supported this great big project without thinking about it. Yet thought is exactly what is needed to correct the errors of Holocaust education today. By the way, there exists a splendid role model for commemoration in, of all places, Poland. The POLIN museum in Warsaw movingly and expertly relates its country's part of the full story we all need to know – how Jews lived there for a thousand years and how, in the end, and most horribly, they died. Like many parishes, our village held its annual fete last Saturday. The problem, in advance, was the weather. Nowadays, weather forecasting is so much more accurate that if it says, two or three days before, that it will rain, it probably will. So event-planners must take it seriously. This avoids the occasional spectacular washouts of the past, after which everyone used to say, through gritted teeth, 'Rain failed to dampen the spirits'. Our organisers therefore did the prudent thing and announced that the fete would not be held in the public garden by the church but in the village's two interconnected halls. The trouble was that, on the day, there was virtually no rain during the fete's opening hours. We all felt slightly silly because we could have stuck with the original plan and saved ourselves a lot of trouble. Should we have followed the old way and just held the thing outdoors, rain or shine? I am not sure of the answer. But I do know that everyone enjoyed the make-do atmosphere among the crowded stalls and the noisy Punch-and-Judy show inside, finding community in adversity. Business was brisk. The splash headline in our local paper says, 'Post office to remain open'. My first reaction was to laugh at this non-news. After all, it is in the nature of shops to open. But I quickly realised I was wrong. It was indeed news. The unspoken policy of the modern Post Office is to close itself down. A decision in the opposite direction certainly deserves the front page. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Freedom Flotillas: The Deadly History as Greta Thunberg Detained by Israel
Freedom Flotillas: The Deadly History as Greta Thunberg Detained by Israel

Newsweek

time43 minutes ago

  • Newsweek

Freedom Flotillas: The Deadly History as Greta Thunberg Detained by Israel

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Israel announced on Monday the interception of a "freedom flotilla" carrying activist Greta Thunberg, the latest attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to bring aid into the Gaza Strip amid Israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the territory. Newsweek reached out to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition for comment via email. Why It Matters The vessel, named Madleen and operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was stopped in international waters on its way to a port in Gaza amid Israel's naval blockade. The FFC said that the group was attempting to deliver humanitarian aid, including food, baby formula and medical supplies. Activists have led these missions to try to bring in aid and food to Gaza, where citizens have faced starvation amid the war between Israel and Hamas. The World Health Organization (WHO) said 2.1 million people in Gaza are "facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death." On October 7, 2023, Hamas led an attack against Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 251 people. Today, around 58 people remain captive. Israel has since launched an offensive on Gaza, killing more than 54,000 people, according to the Associated Press, citing Gaza's Health Ministry. What To Know The decades-long conflict between Israel and Hamas has seen several attempts at breaking through the naval blockade of Gaza, and these efforts have at times turned deadly, such as in 2010. That year, the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara aimed to deliver aid to Gaza and raise awareness about the conditions in the territory. In May 2010, the ship was intercepted by Israel, whose soldiers raided the boat. The raid ended with nine Turkish activists being killed by Israeli naval commandos. Main: The Madleen "freedom flotilla" approaches the Israeli southern port of Ashdod on June 9, 2025. Inset: Greta Thunberg speaks at a press conference in Catania, Italy, on June 1, 2025. Main: The Madleen "freedom flotilla" approaches the Israeli southern port of Ashdod on June 9, 2025. Inset: Greta Thunberg speaks at a press conference in Catania, Italy, on June 1, 2025. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images;Israel said those on board attacked soldiers using knives and iron bars during the interception. Israel faced outrage over its handling of the first flotilla mission, with former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon being among the global leaders who condemned their response. The International Criminal Court, however, declined to prosecute Israel for the raid. Another "freedom flotilla" was planned for the following year, in 2011, from Athens; however, the Greek government banned Gaza-bound ships from using their ports. Additional flotillas were intercepted in 2015, about 100 miles off the Gaza Coast, and in 2018. Last month, another ship, the Conscience, was allegedly attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off the coast of Malta, reported the Associated Press. There have been a few successful attempts at reaching Gaza, such as in 2008, when two boats carrying 46 activists successfully broke through the naval blockage. The ships carried cargo, including hearing aids, into the territory despite Israel's restrictions, according to a report from The Guardian at the time. Ship Carrying Greta Thunberg, Other Activists Seized Thunberg and other activists were on board the Madleen—named after Gaza fisherwoman Madleen Kulab, according to Al Jazeera—as part of the latest effort to break through Israel's naval blockade, but were intercepted on Monday about 120 miles off the coast of Gaza. Israel said the activists would be returned to their home countries and that aid would be distributed to Gaza. In total, there were 12 other individuals aboard the ship, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament and Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Omar Faiad. Huwaida Arraf, a human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer, said in a press release that the interception "blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ's binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza." "These volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalized for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade—their detention is arbitrary, unlawful, and must end immediately," Arraf said. What People Are Saying Greta Thunberg said in a pre-recorded video released Monday: "If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel." Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, on X (formerly Twitter): "To the antisemitic Greta and her fellow Hamas-propaganda spokespeople, I say clearly: You should turn back—because you will not reach Gaza. Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or assist terrorist organizations—at sea, in the air, and on land." Freedom Flotilla organizer Tan Safi, in a press release: "The world's governments remained silent when Conscience was bombed. Now Israel is testing that silence again. Every hour without consequences emboldens Israel to escalate its attacks on civilians, aid workers, and the very foundations of international law." What Happens Next Israeli authorities have indicated that the detained activists will be processed and repatriated. As of Monday, they were being transported to Ashdod.

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