Anti-Israel progressive activist Calla Walsh skated by with a plea deal after helping lead an attack on the Elbit Systems facility in Merrimack. Now, however, there’s a call for federal investigators to take a closer look.
“The facts are clear that Ms. Walsh has an animosity towards America, Israel, and the Jewish people. Her involvement in organizations that condone and promote terrorist organizations and their actions brings a heavy weight to her and her co-conspirators’ illegal actions,” wrote Houston Keene, head of the activist group Democracy Restored.
Keene, a former Fox News reporter, made the plea to Erin Creegan, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. He wants Creegan to open a federal investigation into Walsh and her associates, arguing the state prosecution did not go far enough. Walsh, Sophie Ross, Bridget Shergalis, and Page Belanger each served two months in jail on misdemeanor convictions under the plea deal resolving their cases.
“Democracy Restored believes that this state court sentence was insufficient for the actions undertaken by Ms. Walsh and her co-conspirators and requests that the New Hampshire U.S. Attorney’s Office begin an investigation into the conduct of the group of so-called activists,” Keene wrote.
Walsh, Shergalis, Ross, and Belanger, acting under the Palestinian Action U.S. banner, stormed the Elbit facility days after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas terrorists murdered nearly 1,300 people. During the incident, the women broke windows, set off smoke bombs, and spray-painted the building.
After serving her sentence, Walsh continued her activism against Israel and the United States. She is affiliated with Unity of Fields, a radical progressive organization that supports violence against Jewish people and backs the Iranian regime in its confrontation with the U.S. and Israel. Last summer, Walsh traveled to Tehran to appear on Iranian state television.
“We all have a duty, when we go back to the countries we came from, to share the truth we saw here and to struggle against Zionism and imperialism,” Walsh said during her remarks. “Glory to all the martyrs! Glory to the Axis of Resistance! … Death to America! Death to Israel.”
The so-called Axis of Resistance refers to Iranian-aligned militant and terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, engaged in conflict with Israel and the United States. Months after Walsh voiced support for Iran’s government, the country’s autocratic rulers began killing thousands of Iranian citizens who protested in the streets.
Keene believes there is already sufficient evidence for the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pursue federal charges against Walsh and her cohorts.
“Ms. Walsh and her co-conspirators targeted an Israeli defense firm for political reasons and destroyed property, levied outlandish claims of genocide, and employed incendiary devices in a 21st-century recreation of Kristallnacht,” Keene wrote. “Regardless of one’s views on any political issue, no political position justifies violent demonstrations and damaging property. Based on Ms. Walsh’s rhetoric calling for the toppling of both America and Israel, and her vocal support of radical Islamic terrorist groups that share the same goals, it is clear that Ms. Walsh’s actions were driven by hate-filled political motivations against America, our closest ally in the Middle East, and the Jewish people.”
“A Yemeni citizen puts the right man in the right place” – a post in Walsh’s X feed.
Walsh comes from a privileged background. She graduated from Shady Hill School, a prestigious private school in Massachusetts, with an annual tuition of about $52,000. She began her activism as a teenager, gaining prominence for her organizing on behalf of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). She later appeared frequently in the media as a voice for young activists supporting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Even as reports come in of protesters in the streets of Iran being killed by the Iranian mullahs, perhaps in the tens of thousands, Walsh is still publicly defending the regime in her social media feed.
Walsh became a Democratic Socialist in 2021 and has long been linked, along with the other women, to James “Fergie” Chambers, the founder of a Marxist commune in the Berkshires. Chambers is a multimillionaire who claims to be a Marxist and a convert to Islam. Once a Catholic convert and outspoken abortion opponent who defended free markets, Chambers now praises Russia’s Vladimir Putin and supports Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Iran and Russia are allies in their efforts to undermine U.S. influence.
Chambers later moved from the commune to New Hampshire’s Upper Valley, citing the state’s favorable tax laws and access to legal firearms. Following the Elbit incident, Chambers relocated to Tunisia, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
NHJournal has learned that, before leaving the country, Chambers was under FBI investigation. Walsh, described by critics as his acolyte, now travels internationally with no apparent restrictions.
