A New Jersey man is facing federal firearms charges after prosecutors say he plotted to assassinate a prominent Palestinian American activist.<\/p>\n
The U.S. attorney\u2019s office in New Jersey charged Alexander Heifler, 26, on Friday with unlawful possession and making of firearms, according to a criminal complaint. The NYPD and FBI arrested Heifler in connection to a plot against Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani after he allegedly shared his plans with an undercover NYPD officer monitoring a group messaging forum, according to a department spokesperson, who declined to name the platform.<\/p>\n
Heifler\u2019s arrest comes as the NYPD says it\u2019s closely watching a rise in online extremism<\/a>, particularly among young people. It follows a separate thwarted terrorist attack earlier this month, when federal prosecutors say two teens who allegedly professed support for the Islamic State<\/a> attempted to ignite homemade explosive devices<\/a> outside Gracie Mansion.<\/p>\n An NYPD spokesperson said Heifler proposed throwing Molotov cocktails at her Staten Island home and car. The group chat was monitored by an NYPD investigator who specializes in extremism. The criminal complaint does not specify what platform the group was using to communicate.<\/p>\n Kiswani, founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, said in a statement that \u201cZionist organizations like Betar\u201d \u2014 which the New York attorney general\u2019s office has deemed an extremist group \u2014 and politicians have been encouraging violence against her and her family for months.<\/p>\n \u201cI will have more to say as additional details come to light,\u201d she said. \u201cI will not stop speaking up for the people of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorney information for Heifler was not immediately available. The FBI did not return a message for comment. Betar denied any connection to the incident.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement that Heifler is a member of an offshoot of the Jewish Defense League, which he said is designated by the FBI as a \u201cknown violent extremist organization.\u201d He said the plot \u201ccomes amidst an alarming rise in threats and violence across the country targeting Palestinian human rights advocates.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be clear: We will not tolerate violent extremism in our city. No one should face violence for their political beliefs or their advocacy. I am relieved that Nerdeen is safe,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cOur city must meet hate with solidarity, and meet fear with an unshakable commitment to justice and to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Heifler first proposed attacking Kiswani in a Feb. 10 video call with the undercover officer, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n The NYPD investigator who had been monitoring the chat then suggested to Heifler that they speak privately. On March 4, an NYPD spokesperson said, Heifler and the undercover officer met in person, drove to Kiswani\u2019s house and came up with an escape plan involving a fake license plate and steps to obscure their DNA evidence.<\/p>\n The mayor said Heifler\u2019s plan was to flee to Israel after the attack.<\/p>\n An NYPD spokesperson said Heifler was unknown to the department before the online threat.<\/p>\n On March 23, Heifler texted the undercover officer that he planned to make the Molotov cocktails this week, telling the officer \u201cyeah Thursday [March 26, 2026] night would be best to bake,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n The NYPD spokesperson said Heifler was arrested on Thursday in his home while preparing the Molotov cocktails with the undercover officer. His plan, according to the spokesperson, was to surround Kiswani\u2019s house and car with the devices that evening.<\/p>\n \u201cOur undercover officer identified and tracked the threat \u2014 first online and then in person \u2014 allowing us to disrupt the planned attack, take Heifler into custody, and ensure that no one was harmed,\u201d Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is exactly how our intelligence and counterterrorism operation is designed to work \u2014 a sophisticated apparatus built to detect danger early and prevent violence before it reaches our streets,\u201d Tisch said.<\/p>\n An NYPD spokesperson said the undercover officer worked for the department\u2019s Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism unit, which investigates groups such as violent white supremacists, antigovernment extremists and other ideological extremist groups.<\/p>\n Rebecca Weiner, NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, told Gothamist in a recent interview<\/a> that young people across the ideological spectrum have been increasingly radicalizing online since the pandemic and the start of the Israel-Hamas War. She said social media platforms have normalized violence and created an \u201cecho chamber\u201d for people with similar beliefs to become more extreme.<\/p>\n Kiswani is a Palestinian and U.S. citizen who was born in Jordan and came to America as a refugee when she was a year old, according to court records. She founded Within Our Lifetime in New York City in 2015 to organize \u201cdemonstrations, boycotts, and pressure campaigns against Israel and its occupation of Palestine,\u201d those records state.<\/p>\n Within Our Lifetime describes itself an anti-Zionist organization on its website. It calls for the \u201cliberation of Palestine\u201d through \u201call forms of Palestinian resistance\u201d and the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n Critics have accused Within Our Lifetime and Kiswani of antisemitism, including the Anti-Defamation League, which calls the group \u201cradical\u201d on its website<\/a>. A lawsuit filed last year in the Southern District of New York by a group of Israelis and Jewish Americans affected by the October 7th attack accused Kiswani, Within our Lifetime and other organizations on Columbia University\u2019s campus of violating U.S. antiterrorism laws \u2014 allegations Kiswani has denied in court papers.<\/p>\n Kiswani filed her own federal lawsuit last month accusing Betar \u2014 a self-described \u201cZionist activist organization\u201d \u2014 of orchestrating people to stalk, harass and threaten her, including by handing her a beeper reminiscent of the kind Israel used to attack members of Hezbollah. She sued Betar under the Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Act of 1871, arguing the group has subjected her to \u201ca coordinated and sustained campaign of racial violence.\u201d<\/p>\n