‘Free Palestine’ Shooter Left a Manifesto

Elias Rodriguez, the only suspect in the shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers last night, left behind a manifesto justifying his actions on his X account. The document was first identified by Intercept journalist Ken Klipperstein. This hasn’t been confirmed by authorities yet but there are reasons to think it’s authentic.

I believe the document to be authentic for several reasons, including the fact that it is signed by Rodriguez and timestamped well before he was named by law enforcement or any media. I am publishing it here not to glorify the violence — which I find abhorrent and condemn — but so the public can better understand the truth of what happened.

The ADL has also connected Elias to the manifesto:

An online manifesto posted on X lays out the reasons for the attack. The ADL Center on Extremism has been able to connect the alleged suspect, with a high degree of certainty, to the manifesto, shared under the heading “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home” — slogans commonly used by anti-Israel activists, particularly in more extreme, militant spaces.

The manifesto was posted as two separate tweets on X under the caption “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home.” Here’s a bit of what it says.

An armed action is not necessarily a military action. It usually is not. Usually it is theater and spectacle, a quality it shares with many unarmed actions. Nonviolent protest in the opening weeks of the genocide seemed to signal some sort of turning point. Never before had so many tens of thousands joined the Palestinians in the streets across the West. Never before had so many American politicians been forced to concede that, rhetorically at least, the Palestinians were human beings, too. But thus far the rhetoric has not amounted to much. The 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, 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. Aaron Bushnell and others sacrificed themselves in the hopes of stopping the massacre and the state works to make us feel their sacrifice was made in vain, that there is no hope in escalating for Gaza and no point in bringing the war home. We can’t let them succeed. Their sacrifices were not made in vain.

Aaron Bushnell is the man who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy last February to protest the war in Gaza. The manifesto continues:

The impunity that representatives of our government feel at abetting this slaughter should be revealed as an illusion, then…

A perpetrator may then be a loving parent, a filial child, a generous and charitable friend, an amiable stranger, capable of moral strength at times when it suits him and sometimes even when it does not, and yet be a monster all the same. Humanity doesn’t exempt one from accountability. The action would have been morally justified taken 11 years ago during Protective Edge, around the time I personally became acutely aware of our brutal conduct in Palestine. But I think to most Americans such an action would have been illegible, would seem insane. I am glad that today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do.

I love you Mom, Dad, baby sis, the rest of my familia, including you, O*****

Free Palestine

-Elias Rodriguez

“The action” appears to be the only direct reference to what he was planning but clearly the whole thing is a justification of violence against people he calls monsters.

The same account that posted the manifesto also posted several revealing statements.

He also retweeted this post by Jewish Voice for Peace tweet from 2023 when the group attempted to shut down an Israeli consulate in Chicago.

Finally, last year he mused about sending a truck bomb into the offices of the New York Times, saying the morality of such an act could be discussed later.

Forward has a bit more:

The New York Times reported that a sign in the window of a Chicago apartment apparently occupied by Rodriguez had several pro-Palestinian signs in the window, including one that read, “Tikkun Olam means free Palestine,” referencing the Jewish concept of repairing the world…

Last June, the account reshared a video of people in a nightclub chanting “let’s go bomb Tel Aviv,” and in September the account posted “🔪🐷🇮🇱” over a screenshot of news articles about Israel invading Lebanon…

One week after the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, the account asked: “What more evidence is needed that the colony and its recalcitrants will have to be totally extirpated by the end of all this?” using a word that means to “root out and destroy completely,” over a video of Israeli pundits defending the war in Gaza.

Rodriguez is still alive so we’ll have plenty of opportunity to hear from him and his attorneys about his motives. Is there any chance he won’t become the left’s next Luigi Mangione at this point? How long before chants of “Free Elias!” are heard at pro-Hamas protests? They’ve already started:

FREE ELIAS RODRIGUEZ!

— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) May 22, 2025

How can people embrace, celebrate & support Luigi’s political violence (which was also a good thing) but not support Elias Rodriguez, whose action is far more politically salient – killing two diplomats of the genocidal zionazi govt in support of Palestinian national liberation?

— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) May 22, 2025

It looks like Elias himself was a fan.

funny argument the guy is making while 80% of the country applauds the targeted annihilation of a healthcare insurance exec

— kyodo.leather 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 (@kyotoleather) December 5, 2024