Anti-Israel terror unfolded in Boston, where 25-year-old anti-Israel extremist Jermaiah Yusuf Sawaqed allegedly planted homemade explosive devices in the Boston Common and vandalized multiple landmarks with pro-Hamas graffiti. Police say Sawaqed is a member of the newly formed Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation (DAMPL), a group that “explicitly rejects peaceful protest, instead endorsing violent resistance and sabotage” while pledging support for Hamas.
Investigators accuse Sawaqed of defacing the Massachusetts State House, the George Washington statue, and an MIT research lab with slogans such as “Death to the IOF” and the Hamas triangle symbol. After the July State House vandalism, police say he fled through the Boston Common, leaving behind two “homemade improvised explosive devices” constructed from toilet paper rolls with attached fuses. DAMPL later posted a video claiming responsibility, boasting that it had targeted the State House with “paint mixed with feces” and lit homemade flares on its gates.
Authorities seized flyers, anti-Israel propaganda, gasoline cans, and a commercial-grade firework modified to resemble the same devices found at the scene. The arrest comes amid a surge of anti-Semitic violence nationwide, including the May killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and a fatal Molotov cocktail attack on a Jewish woman in Colorado.
Police reports warn DAMPL has “raised significant public safety concerns,” citing its violent rhetoric such as “Intifada until liberation” and “Palestine or we scorch the earth.”
