New York police say they foiled an assassination attempt against Palestinian American activist Nerdeen Kiswani. She describes the terror of finding out about the plot and why it reflects the “impunity” with which Zionist groups have targeted pro-Palestine voices.

“It really made me feel even more vulnerable than I already do as a Palestinian activist,” says Kiswani, co-founder of the group Within Our Lifetime.

A New Jersey man, Alexander Heifler, has been arrested and charged with plotting to firebomb Kiswani’s home in Brooklyn. Investigators say Heifler was a member of the JDL 613 Brotherhood, a New Jersey-based group founded in 2024 that describes itself as a revival of the Jewish Defense League, a pro-Israel group designated by the FBI as a terrorist organization.

“It’s truly shocking, what they’ve been able to get away with,” Kiswani says of extreme Zionist groups like the Jewish Defense League. “It’s just been ignored for far too long, so it’s good to finally have some accountability.”

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

A New Jersey man has been arrested and charged with plotting to firebomb the home of a prominent Palestinian American activist in Brooklyn. Alexander Heifler is accused of assembling Molotov cocktails and planning an arson attack against the home of Nerdeen Kiswani, the co-founder of Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led community organization here in New York. Nerdeen has led protests in support of Palestinians and against Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The arrest follows a weekslong undercover investigation by the New York Police Department that started online. Investigators say Heifler is a member of the GDL 613 Brotherhood, a New Jersey-based group founded in 2024. The group is an offshoot of the Jewish Defense League, a pro-Israel group designated by the FBI as a terrorist organization. The plot allegedly began in February when Heifler discussed making Molotov cocktails on a video call that included an undercover detective. Prosecutors said in the complaint the undercover detective met in person with Heifler on three occasions, and they built eight Molotov cocktails together in Heifler’s home. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a statement that read in part, quote, “The defendant reportedly planned to flee to Israel following the attack. This comes amid an alarming rise in threats and violence across the country targeting Palestinian human rights advocates,” Mayor Mamdani said.

We’re joined here in our New York studio by Nerdeen Kiswani.

Welcome to Democracy Now! You are the prominent Palestinian American activist that this man targeted, a part of this offshoot of the JDL. Can you talk about when you learned of the possible assassination attempt?

NERDEEN KISWANI: Thank you so much for having me. Amy.

I learned of the assassination attempt a night before everyone else. Thursday night around 9 or 10 p.m., FBI, JTTF, Joint Terrorist Task Force, reached out to me and my family, called us multiple times, you know, and let us know this — “You’re not in any trouble. This concerns your safety” — and told me that, you know, I was in danger of imminent harm, and they’ve made an arrest, and they no longer believe I’m in danger. But they really didn’t provide any other information, not his name, not what the threat was, just that an arrest was made in Hoboken, and told me that I’d find out about it on the news like everyone else the next day.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what were your first thoughts when the FBI and the New York Police Department contacted you, and then when you heard what this plot was all about, when he was brought into court, a Zoom call him, unbeknownst to him, an undercover detective, as they planned your assassination?

NERDEEN KISWANI: Well, before I knew it was the FBI, I was getting “no caller ID” calls. I thought it could have been Zionists that were coming to my front door that were calling me, because I’ve been getting these kinds of threats for years now, and they’ve been increasing especially in the last few months.

But when they told me about the plot, you know, my heart dropped to my stomach. I have a 9-month-old infant. I have a disabled brother. I have family that, you know, I’m worried about and that I care about. And it really made me feel even more vulnerable than I already do as a Palestinian activist who’s been warning about this kind of thing for so long. And Zionists have been able to continue to target me, harass me, attack me with impunity. So, it was really scary, and it really harkened back to the lawsuit that I filed against Betar, another Zionist organization, just last month, in February. You know, it’s —

AMY GOODMAN: And why did you file that lawsuit?

NERDEEN KISWANI: It’s a civil rights lawsuit under the Anti-KKK Act of 1871. And it, you know, alleges that they violated my civil rights by making it impossible for me to participate in public life. They put an $1,800 bounty on my head, saying, “We’ll give $1,800 to anyone who hands that jihadi a beeper,” of course, referencing the Lebanon — the Israeli attack on Lebanese families, children, who’ve been left maimed and disabled. So, it instantly brought my mind back to that and whether this was revenge to that. It brought my mind back to Alex Odeh of the ADC, who was firebombed in his office.

AMY GOODMAN: That was the —

NERDEEN KISWANI: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Los Angeles.

NERDEEN KISWANI: Exactly. And, you know, he died. And his perpetrators, the suspects, also fled to Israel, just like this guy was planning to, and were never, you know, held to justice. Nobody was ever jailed for that. There was no accountability.

AMY GOODMAN: Reading from The New York Times, “The J.D.L. … founded in New York in the [’60s] by Meir Kahane, a Brooklyn-born anti-Arab militant who later moved to Israel and founded the Kach party. The party was later outlawed in Israel for inciting racism. … The Jewish Defense League and the Kach party have been connected to several high-profile acts of violence. In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, another Brooklyn-born man and J.D.L. activist who immigrated to Israel, killed 29 people and injured 125 more when he opened fire at a West Bank mosque during Ramadan.” And then, “In 2005, J.D.L. members were convicted of a plot to bomb a Los Angeles mosque and an office of [Congressmember] Darrell Issa in California.”

NERDEEN KISWANI: Yeah, it’s truly shocking, what they’ve been able to get away with. They’ve been openly protesting Within Our Lifetime for over 10 years. Despite being on the designated terrorist list by the FBI, they operate in plain sight. I’ve been also warning about them. This specific offshoot tweeted at me in January, saying that “you and your disgusting baby have no right to exist in the U.S., and we are always watching you.” You know, I posted about that. I’ve been, you know, screaming into the void about the plots, the assassination, the history of assassination attempts, the attacks, you know, that they’ve lobbed at the Palestine movement, at Palestinians, at Muslims, and it’s just been ignored for far too long. So, it’s good to finally have some accountability, although the charges are limited to just making and possession of firearms and not the attempted murder and attempted terrorist attack.

AMY GOODMAN: Within Our Lifetime, the group you co-founded, what does
it do?

NERDEEN KISWANI: We organize protests, educational events, and really advocate to revitalize the revolutionary spirit of Palestinians in exile. But we work with, you know, people of all different faiths and backgrounds to bring Palestine front and center and to remind everyone, especially here in New York City, that it’s our tax dollars that pay for the genocide, that pay for the occupation of the Palestinian people, my people, and so it’s our responsibility to educate, agitate and organize, to remove, to end all U.S. funding to Israel, and to support Palestinian
liberation.

AMY GOODMAN: And the name Within Our Lifetime means?

NERDEEN KISWANI: That, you know, we believe that Palestine is going to be free within our lifetime. It’s not a distant endeavor. It’s something that we wish to bring about, you know, while we’re here, for the future of everybody.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, thank you for coming into our studio.

NERDEEN KISWANI: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: I know this was a risk with your baby. Thank you, and
be safe.

NERDEEN KISWANI: Thank you so much, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Nerdeen Kiswani is co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime. She and her attorneys are holding a news conference today at 11 a.m. at New York City Hall.

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