A New Jersey man who planned to firebomb the home of a prominent Palestinian activist was arrested Thursday following a weekslong undercover operation led by the New York City Police Department, officials said.
The target of the plot was Nerdeen Kiswani, an outspoken Brooklyn-based Palestinian activist who co-founded the group Within Our Lifetime.
Kiswani, 31, said she received a call from a law enforcement official late Thursday informing her that "a threat on my life was about to take place, and that they had apprehended the threat.”
Federal authorities said they had arrested the man, Andrew Heifler, as he was assembling Molotov cocktails to throw at Kiswani’s home. For weeks, he had discussed the plot with an undercover NYPD officer who had infiltrated a group chat used by Heifler, according to a police department spokesperson.
Kiswani was targeted for her pro-Palestinian views, the spokesperson added.
Heifler was charged in a criminal complaint Thursday with two firearms offenses. An online court docket did not list a lawyer for him or information on an initial court appearance. The U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey declined to comment.
According to the complaint, Heifler spoke on a video call in February with a group that included an undercover officer about his interest in training for "self-defense” and wanting space where he could throw Molotov cocktails.
The next day, the complaint said, Heifler and the undercover officer met in person and he discussed wanting to vandalize Kiswani’s home. He said he had Kiswani’s address and spoke to the undercover officer about making Molotov cocktails and his plan to flee the country after the attack, the complaint said.
On March 4, Heifler and the undercover officer drove to Kiswani’s residence to "conduct surveillance” and discussed making a dozen Molotov cocktails to throw at her home and two cars parked outside, the complaint said.
On Thursday, the undercover officer and Heifler met at Heifler’s Hoboken residence, where he had assembled components to make the Molotov cocktails, including a large bottle of Everclear, a highly flammable alcohol, the complaint said.
Law enforcement officers then executed a search warrant at the residence and recovered the eight Molotov cocktails, the complaint said.
Kiwani, who lives with her infant son and husband, said she was "shell-shocked” by the news, but not surprised.
"I feel very blessed that they were able to thwart this, but it’s something that is a constant possibility for people who speak up on behalf of Palestine,” Kiswani said, adding that she would "continue advocating on behalf of Palestinian children.”
The operation was carried out by the Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism unit within the NYPD’s counterterrorism bureau, a police spokesperson said.
