A thwarted assassination plot against Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani at her home was the inevitable result of bounties placed on her head by several extremist pro-Israel organizations, she claimed on Monday.
Echoing charges she made last month in a federal lawsuit against Betar Zionist Organization and several of its leaders, Kiswani and her lawyers are seeking to establish a link between the lone suspect accused of making Molotov cocktails to firebomb Kiswani’s home and extremist groups like Betar.
“There have been bounties placed on us, and what we’re seeing today, this was not an isolated incident,” Kiswani, 31, said at a City Hall news conference.
”It is part of a broader pattern. Organizations like Betar and individuals aligned with them, organizations like the Jewish Defense League, have spent years targeting Palestinian activists through harassment, intimidation and violence, and targeting me specifically.”
Representatives of Betar, a far-right pro-Israel group, quickly denied the accusation and denounced any attempt to link the group with the suspect.
“We are Jewish Zionists, proud strong Jews,” a Betar spokesman said in a statement. “We know nothing about the accusations against this man. Kiswani wanted to globalize the intifada. Aren’t Molotov cocktails part of her violent intifada?”
Federal authorities on Thursday arrested Alexander Heifler, 25, at his home in New Jersey, and charged him with plotting to assassinate Kiswani, co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, an explicitly anti-Zionist group that has led many of the city’s highest-profile demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Heifler was arrested after an NYPD undercover cop, who learned of the plot, befriended him and helped him build eight Molotov cocktails he planned to hurl at Kiswani’s home, according to police and court documents.
“When I learned that someone was preparing to attack my home, building explosives with the intention of taking my life, I was not just processing that as a public figure,” Kiswani said.
“I was processing that as a mother holding my infant, thinking what it means for someone to target my home, where my child sleeps, where my family is supposed to be safe.”
Heifler was charged with federal counts of unlawful possession and making of destructive devices.
Each charge carries a penalty of 10 years in prison. He was arraigned in Newark Federal Court on Friday.
Heifler is Jewish, police sources said. He planned to flee to Israel after he firebombed Kiswani’s house.
Authorities said he had conducted several dry runs as he passed by Kiswani’s home.
Kiswani filed her lawsuit against Betar under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era law originally designed to combat KKK violence.
