A man, standing behind police tape, talks on his cell phone outside the Capital Jewish Museum following the deadly shooting in Washington, D.C. on May 22, 2025.
Photo: Alex Wroblewski / AFP
Top Israeli officials say European governments critical of the war against Hamas are partly to blame.
A young couple who worked for the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C., and who were planning their engagement, were shot dead on Wednesday night outside the city’s Jewish museum by a gunman who chanted “free Palestine.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the shooting of Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen and a devout Christian, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, an American, should come as no surprise and instead reveals “the real colours of the ‘Free Palestine’ movement.”
The growing extremism of the ‘Free Palestine’ movement has been a ticking time bomb which has been waiting to explode.
It’s long past time that our leaders and police chiefs woke up and took firm action, otherwise these will not be the last lives taken by these fanatical extremists dressed up as peaceniks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since ordered enhanced security at Israeli missions across the world, for fear of future such attacks due to “antisemitism and the wild incitement against the State of Israel.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also attributed the killings to antisemitic and anti-Israeli “incitement,” saying European governments—responding more and more harshly to Israel’s war against Hamas—were partly to blame.
More pointedly, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said:
French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price—and that price is paid in Jewish blood.
European officials are also now voicing outrage after Israeli troops fired what they called “warning shots” as foreign diplomats visited the West Bank. Israel has apologised, saying it regretted the “inconvenience.” The Netherlands said it has requested “clarification” on the situation and was considering “further steps,” while Germany said Netanyahu’s administration “must promptly investigate the circumstances.”
And in a quiet European Parliament on Wednesday, MEPs urged Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to further condemn Israel for the way it is fighting Hamas, with some insisting that the European Union’s cooperation agreement with Israel be suspended immediately.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
