![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774637292_20_nerdeen-kiswani-scaled.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
Nerdeen Kiswani speaks during a protest commemorating Nakba Day on May 15, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Credit: Alexi Rosenfeld\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
NEW YORK – Federal law enforcement officers thwarted a plot to assassinate the leader of one of New York\u2019s most active pro-Palestinian protest groups on Thursday night, according to a criminal complaint and an interview with the targeted activist.<\/p>\n
The New York Times was the first media outlet to report the news<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Assassination plot targeting Nerdeen Kiswani disrupted <\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n According to law enforcement officials, the plot was to firebomb the New York City home of the prominent Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani.<\/p>\n The F.B.I. notified Kiswani and her legal team late Thursday that one or more arrests had been made in connection with the imminent attempt on her life.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “Late last night the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force informed me that a plot against my life that was \u2018about to\u2019 take place, and that agents had conducted an operation in Hoboken related to this plot,” Kiswani said in a statement on the social media platform X<\/a>, linking the New York Times story. “For months, Zionist organizations like Betar and politicians like Randy Fine have encouraged violence against my family and me. I will have more to say as additional details come to light. I will not stop speaking up for the people of Palestine. Thank you for your support.”<\/p>\n She said she was told that the man, Alexander Heifler, had been apprehended.<\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n According to a criminal complaint, Heifler, a New Jersey resident, was arrested in his New Jersey home late Thursday after an undercover operation revealed that he planned to throw a dozen Molotov cocktails at Kiswani’s home.<\/p>\n EARLIER: Iran-linked hackers claim they breached FBI Director Kash Patel’s email<\/a><\/p>\n He had spent weeks discussing the plot with an undercover law enforcement official, at one point going to scope out her home, the complaint said.<\/p>\n He invited the undercover into his home Thursday, where he had assembled components for the bombs, including rags, corks and the highly flammable alcohol, Everclear.<\/p>\n Kiwani said she was shell-shocked by the news, but not surprised.<\/p>\n “I feel very blessed that they were able to thwart this, but it\u2019s something that is a constant possibility for people who speak up on behalf of Palestine,” the 31-year-old said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the NYPD said the operation was part of a joint operation within their counterterrorism bureau.<\/p>\n The Source: This story was reported from Los Angeles. The New York Times, The Associated Press contributed.<\/p>\n Crime and Public Safety<\/a>U.S.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Nerdeen Kiswani speaks during a protest commemorating Nakba Day on May 15, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[850,9,12,56,63,65,64,618],"class_list":{"0":"post-177522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}