Hate speech the soundtrack to DC murders

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky worked side by side at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. She was a young Jewish-American woman from Kansas devoted to international development and peacebuilding. He was a German-Israeli with a background in Middle East policy and diplomacy. They shared a deep commitment to dialogue, understanding, and Jewish identity. They were also in love, planning to get engaged during a trip to Jerusalem. But on an ordinary afternoon, as they visited the Capital Jewish Museum, both were brutally gunned down in a targeted act of hate.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, shot them at close range, and was arrested shortly afterwards. During his arrest, he shouted, “Free, free Palestine!” and told police he committed the murders “for Gaza”.

It’s one of the clearest and most painful examples in recent memory of where unchecked hate speech and incitement can lead: from slogans to slaughter.

This wasn’t an act of random violence. It was targeted. Premeditated. Ideological. And it was born in an environment where increasingly radical voices are allowed to dominate our discourse without consequence.

Rodriguez has a digital history littered with posts about the Gaza war, far-left extremist content, and antisemitic conspiracy theories. He had attended anti-Israel protests in Chicago, where he lived before travelling to Washington. He’s not some lone madman. He’s the end product of months – perhaps years – of indoctrination through a steady drip of dehumanising rhetoric, spread online and on the streets.

We must stop pretending that language is harmless.

When people chant “From the river to the sea!” they aren’t just expressing a political position. They are endorsing the erasure of the world’s only Jewish state, and, by extension, the Jews who support it. That chant, repeated at rallies, printed on placards, and trending on social media, wasn’t harmless background noise. It was the soundtrack to this murder.

This matters here in South Africa too, because we know this trajectory all too well.

Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, routinely employs rhetoric that dehumanises groups of people. He has told his followers to “cut the throat of whiteness”; threatened journalists; and accused Jews of hiding behind “white capital”. When his supporters chant, “Kill the Boer!” defenders claim it’s metaphorical. But when farms are attacked and people are murdered, are we still meant to believe that words don’t matter?

Incitement creates permission.

It creates a moral license in the minds of those who are susceptible, whether they’re on the political fringes or just looking for someone to blame. The murder of Milgrim and Lischinsky isn’t the story of a mentally unstable man who snapped. It’s the story of what happens when incitement is tolerated, normalised, and even celebrated in public discourse.

We’ve seen this before. In Rwanda, the 1994 genocide was preceded by months of hate speech broadcast on the radio. In Nazi Germany, the groundwork for the Holocaust was laid long before the Final Solution – in classrooms, newspapers, and posters that described Jews as vermin. The road from rhetoric to violence is well documented. What’s astonishing is how often we choose to ignore it.

Today, social media has made this radicalisation easier and faster. Rodriguez didn’t need a pamphlet or a radio station, he had Instagram, Telegram, and TikTok. He had influencers and activists cloaking hate in the language of “justice” and “liberation”. He had a virtual community cheering him on.

We must stop being afraid to say it: antisemitism is fuelling this violence. And antisemitism doesn’t only come from the far-right. Increasingly, it’s embedded in the rhetoric of those who claim to be fighting oppression, but who, whether knowingly or not, endorse the oldest hatred of all.

So what do we do?

First, we must speak up. Every time a political figure like Malema crosses the line from protest into incitement, it’s our duty to call it out. We cannot wait until a tragedy happens here. If we remain silent, we are complicit.

Second, we must demand accountability. South African law prohibits hate speech. Why is Malema never held accountable? Why are political leaders allowed to incite violence with impunity? If our legal system doesn’t apply equally to everyone, then who is it protecting?

Third, we must protect and educate our youth. Jewish students in South African universities are already feeling the pressure of a rising tide of hostility. They must be equipped to understand the difference between legitimate criticism and incitement, and to stand up confidently for their identity.

And finally, we must remember Milgrim and Lischinsky.

Milgrim held graduate degrees in international affairs and sustainable development, and volunteered with Tech2Peace, a group that brings together Israeli and Palestinian youth for dialogue and tech training. Lischinsky, who served in the Israeli military, worked as a political research assistant at the Israeli embassy in Washington, focusing on Middle East and North African issues. The couple had a shared passion for diplomacy and peace. Their murder isn’t just a tragedy, it’s a warning.

They died because someone believed that killing Jews was an act of political solidarity. That belief didn’t form in a vacuum. It was cultivated by words. Repeated. Amplified. Left unchallenged.

Let their deaths not be in vain.

Let them be a line in the sand.

We often hear that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. That’s a lie. Words do hurt. And when spoken by those in power, or those with reach, they kill.

We cannot afford to be naïve. Incitement is not a side issue. It’s not just ugly speech. It’s the prelude to violence, and sometimes, to murder.

If we allow hatred to be shouted from podiums and scrawled across timelines without pushback, we shouldn’t be shocked when it arrives on our doorstep with a gun.

• Paula Slier is the founder and chief executive of Newshound Media International, and hosts the afternoon Home Run on ChaiFM.