Congratulations, You’ve Globalized the Intifada!

Noon marks the indisputably most sacred time of day at the Embassy of Israel — lunch. Each day between 11:59 and 12:01, the large white table which serves as the nucleus of the Public Diplomacy Department is transformed from a barren landscape to a bustling assortment of Tupperware, a medley of wafting scents, and staffers dramatically straggling for a seat. So, that unusually warm spring day, I sat mystified as the clock ticked past 12:00 and I remained our table’s sole occupant.

Emerging suddenly from around the corner was a fiery shock of hair accompanied by her characteristic playful smile. She slyly gestured for me to follow her to the courtyard, where a handful of the young women on my team had decided to take advantage of the weather and eat outdoors. Enlivened by the sunshine, we cheerfully swapped silly anecdotes and restaurant recommendations — my favorite spots in Jerusalem in exchange for her’s in DC, in preparation for her upcoming trip with her boyfriend, Yaron. On May 7, the last day of my internship, I squeezed her goodbye as she promised to try my favorite falafel.

But Sarah Milgrim never made it to Jerusalem. In the late hours of Wednesday night, Sarah and her boyfriend Yaron were gunned down in a vitriolic, antisemitic attack while leaving the AJC’s bridge-building event at the Capital Jewish Museum. After being shot, Sarah attempted to crawl away. The accused gunman, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, continued to fire at her.

Soon after, Rodriguez unabashedly admitted to his crime, proclaiming “I did it for Gaza” and “Free Palestine”. In eerie footage from his arrest, Rodriguez can be seen chanting and fitfully waving around a keffiyeh, as if he were an insolent schoolboy protesting his disciplinary probation rather than an unapologetic, cold-blooded murderer.

In the days since Sarah’s killing, I have cycled through several stages of traumatic grief — disbelief that someone I knew so closely could truly be gone, revisionist “what-ifs” featuring inexhaustible alternate timelines, ultimately giving way to utter devastation at the injustice of it all.

Now, I feel angry. I am angry that Sarah and Yaron were stolen far too young, mere days before their coming engagement. I am angry at the faction of extremists who celebrate this death, those who have deluded themselves into believing that the simple act of existing as Jewish or Israeli invites violence. I am especially angry at media coverage of these murders: a portrayal of isolated incidence, a sporadic one-off, a fickle, unlucky accident.

My colleague’s murder was a direct result of the barrage of antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric which has gained unprecedented traction in the year and a half since October 7. The chants which have echoed across college campuses and major cities — “there is only one solution; intifada revolution”; “from the river to the sea, Palestine is all you’ll see” — bear significance beyond their unfortunately well-executed rhyme schemes.

They are unadulterated calls for violence, for the elimination of any person who mildly dissents from their unyielding ideology. Already, the anti-Israel movement’s self-proclaimed humanitarians have taken to the internet to defend the murder of innocent human beings; “resistance by any means necessary” seems to have emerged as their snappy catchphrase of choice.

The murder of Sarah Milgrim, Kansas native, who dedicated her life to bridging gaps across the Middle East, was not “resistance”. It was not a visionary defiance of the Zionist regime, nor an “act of revolutionary optimism [against] the establishment”, as one X user declared it. Investigators recovered 21 shell casings from the scene — more than enough to kill Sarah and Yaron. Rodriguez’s actions — reloading round after road, his entrance into the museum, posing as a bystander confused and frightened by the shooting — reflect a malicious sort of delusion and unfiltrated hatred towards Jews.

Congratulations to terrorists and their fledglings worldwide — you’ve done it! You’ve globalized the intifada! A young American woman who worked diligently each and every day of her adult life to create peace has been robbed of the opportunity to fulfill this mission. A young German-Israeli man, equally peace-minded, will never realize his dream of becoming a diplomat. Sarah and Yaron will never marry, have children, or grow old together. The world lost a spirited and beautiful young couple, the diplomatic community lost two essential advocates for peace, and the Trump administration will almost surely weaponize these deaths to impose harsher policy towards Palestine.

To the so-called activists who have championed intifada over the past 19 months: you are complicit in the murder of Sarah and Yaron, as well as the suffering this will ultimately incur for the people of Gaza.

Sarah — you were the heart of our PDD family. Your loss is inconceivable and felt so profoundly. We will love and miss you forever. It’s not only your memory, but your life, that has been a blessing.