Left Terror for Palestine

And just like that, a terrorist movement in the West is born.

Yesterday, in Boulder, Colorado, a peaceful vigil in support of Israeli hostages was attacked by a 45 year old Egyptian national, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to burn them. According to the police, eight people aged 52 to 88 years old were injured: a video of the immediate aftermath shows the victims lying on the ground while others try to put out the flames and treat their burns.

These were ordinary people, walking peacefully to show their support for their fellow Jews held in captivity in Gaza. In one video, Soliman can be seen shouting “How many children you killed” and “End Zionists”. And of course, as he carried out the attack, he shouted “Free Palestine”.

Eleven days earlier, in Washington D.C., Elias Rodriguez shot dead Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky as they were leaving an American Jewish Commitee event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The event was billed as a Young Diplomats Reception, “bringing together Jewish young professionals (ages 22–45) and the diplomatic community” to discuss ways to work together to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East. Milgrim and Lischinsky both worked for the Israeli Embassy, but it is not known whether Rodriguez knew who they were, or if he just picked them out because they had been at the AJC event. And he, too, shouted “Free Palestine” after gunning down his victims. According to one witness, he followed up with “There’s only one solution, Intifada revolution” - a chant heard on many a demonstration, in the US and in the UK.

Neither of the two events that were attacked were overtly political, promoting or supporting the current actions of the Israeli government. But then, that isn’t the point. If the goal is to “End Zionists” or to instigate “Intifada revolution”, the actual views or behaviour of the Jewish or Israeli targets is a trivial detail.

It is not as if the pro-Palestinian movement has been entirely non-violent up to now: anti-Jewish hate crimes have spiralled, there have been dozens of acts of terrorism or extreme violence globally. But until now, the terrorism that has happened around the world in relation to the conflict in Israel and Gaza has been largely from supporters of jihadist groups like Islamic State, or individuals full of anger but expressing little by way of ideology. Radical groups like Palestine Action have made the violent destruction of property a regular occurrence, but this is the first time we have seen deadly terrorism that is leftist in its political rhetoric and pro-Palestinian in its motivating ideology. Rodriguez had been active in different far left groups in the pro-Palestinian movement in the US, had been on their protests, and his political ideas come squarely out of that world. Details are yet to emerge about whether Soliman was similarly politically active, but again, the language he used - talking about children being killed, and ending Zionism - is ubiquitous in the pro-Palestinian movement.

Left wing terrorism historically was the preserve of Cold War-era groups like Baader-Meinhof in Germany or the Red Brigades in Italy: Marxist-Leninist, often with links to Communist states, and tightly organised around cells and secret structures. This is different, and more similar to the extreme right wing terrorism of recent years, where individuals act alone but do so against the backdrop of a global (and largely online) community that is supportive of their aims and means. Each attack inspires the next, with manifestos, slogans and livestreams posted and shared to glorify each attacker and encourage future atrocities. You don’t need an organisation to build a terrorist movement today: just a collective worldview and a network of social media accounts to spread the message. It is telling that Rodriguez wrote a manifesto explaining his motivation for what he termed an “armed demonstration” and encouraging others to follow his lead, under the slogan “Escalate for Gaza - Bring the War Home”, which he posted on X shortly before the attack. It’s the same methodology used by numerous far right terrorists in recent years. And it is just as telling, and predictable, that many in the pro-Palestinian world have shared this manifesto, adopted Rodriguez’s slogan, and celebrated, justified or excused his act.

What this means for Jews around the world is obvious: even more security, more fear, and the need for greater resilience and determination to continue living our lives in defiance of this threat. What it should mean for a pro-Palestinian movement that has made calls for “resistance” and “intifada” the centrepiece of its rhetoric is a period of introspection as to how this movement has produced its own brand of terrorism in the West. But that won’t happen.

This is how a terrorist movement is not just born, but how it grows. Individuals act alone, but they are not truly lone actors: they emerge from a political subculture that is steeped in violent discourse and imagery, and that justifies terrorism when it is in pursuit of an approved cause. This is a movement that responded to the horrors of October 7 with acts of celebration and demonstrations of support, and has only become more extreme since. The main surprise is that it has taken this long for this kind of terrorism to emerge in the West. The fear, after the Washington D.C. shooting, was that it would inspire more attacks: once one person from within the pro-Palestinian world had stepped over that line, others would follow. Now there are two, and it is inevitable there will be more.