A teenager known for anti-Israel sentiments and boasting nearly a million followers on social media stirred up controversy on TikTok by urging people to “support” the suspect in the DC Jewish Museum killing. This action led TikTok to take the unusual move of swiftly removing the post.
Guy Christensen, a 19-year-old from Pennsylvania who often wears a keffiyeh and is known online as “YourFavoriteGuy,” reiterated his views in an interview with The Post on Friday.
“You will not hear me sympathize with war criminals,” Christensen stated over the phone, referencing the two Israeli Embassy diplomats who were allegedly killed by Elias Rodriguez, an accused anti-Israel gunman.
Christensen â in a TikTok video Thursday that garnered more than 632,500 views before being taken down â said, âI want to urge you first to support Eliasâ actions.â
In his video, Christensen added, âI do not condemn the elimination of those two Zionist officials who worked at the Israeli Embassy last night … and hereâs why.
âIsrael has a live-streamed a genocide to the entire world the last two years,ââ he said.
âYou can not expect to do such a thing in this world without the people standing up to fight to stop you in any way they can, to resist against you,ââ said the college freshman, who refused to say where he goes to school.
Asked by The Post if his post could be interpreted as saying he supports the killing of the victims, the teen replied, âI think the only people who are interpreting [that] as such are the peopleââ who are using the slayings of âthose two Zionist officials … as a pretense to silence critics of Israel.ââ
Christensen â who has previously indicated online that he is from Pittsburgh â called the dead man, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, a âwar criminal” in the footage, which included a Palestinian flag in the background.
âAnd the same was true for the woman,ââ he said, referring to Lischinskyâs dead girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancee, Sarah Milgrim, 26.
He meanwhile insisted Rodriguez was ânot a terrorist.
âHe is a resistance fighter,ââ Christensen said.
Follow The Post’s coverage on Israeli Embassy staffers killed in DC
He added to The Post, âI think itâs very shameful that the media would rather cover Elias Rodriguez over the death of hundreds of Palestinians yesterday.ââ
TikTok still had Christensenâs inflammatory video up early Friday afternoon.
A rep said in an email about a half-hour after a Post inquiry about it that the footage was taken down âfor violating our Community Guidelines.ââ
âWe have removed the video that you shared for violating our Community Guidelines,ââ the representative wrote.
âOur Community Guidelines prohibit anyone from promoting violent or hateful actors, and we do not allow conspiracy theories that are violent or hateful, such as denying well-documented violent events.â
Christensen told The Post that his video had been initially taken down by TikTok, then he appealed and won. After it went up again, it was taken down again, and he appealed and succeeded in his bid.
He said it was taken down a third time and that there would be no appeal.
