Nerdeen Kiswani, pro-Palestinian activist targeted in alleged firebomb plot, says "I will not stop speaking out"
Nerdeen Kiswani, the pro-Palestinian activist who was targeted in what she calls an assassination plot, spoke out Monday, three days after the FBI and NYPD said an undercover operation thwarted a plot by a New Jersey man to firebomb her home.
Kiswani, the co-founder of the group Within Our Lifetime, said the plot was part of a broader pattern of ongoing threats against her, but that it would not dissuade her activism.
"I will not be silenced"
Kiswani, 31, said the alleged attempt on her life in New York City followed a monthslong campaign of stalking, intimidation and racially motivated threats against her.
"For years, I and so many other Palestinian organizers have been the targets of coordinated harassment," she said. "And today, I am standing here not just as an organizer, but as a mother, as a Palestinian, and as someone who was the target of a Zionist assassination plot that I have been warning [about].
"I want to be clear about one thing: I will not be silenced. I will not stop speaking out for the Palestinian people," she said.
Within Our Lifetime has been accused of antisemitism. The group has organized protests related to the 2024 student encampment at Columbia University, and another protest that year outside an exhibit commemorating the lives lost in the Nova Music Festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.
Kiswani said she filed a federal lawsuit in February against Betar, a Zionist organization, alleging it has coordinated a campaign of harassment that included cash bounties to anyone who would physically harm her, and repeated confrontations at demonstrations across the city.
A representative from Betar told CBS News New York it never threatened physical harm to Kiswani, but said, in part, "She has repeatedly labeled Israel's very existence as 'genocide' and calls for a 'Zionist-free NYC' -- language that targets Jews."
"We do not tolerate any kind of violent extremism," Mamdani says
Kiswani said the FBI and NYPD told her the firebomb plot was about to take place. The NYPD said the suspect, 36-year-old Alexander Heifler of Hoboken, was already in custody when Kiswani was told.
"Not only was she home, but she was home with a 10-month-old baby and her husband," said Dania Darwish, with the ASEA Women's Center.
"I have been going to bed every night worried about my child, worried about my family," Kiswani said, adding, "I'm still getting threats, violent threats talking about people coming to my home people, talking about sending bullets to my home."
An NYPD spokesperson said a specialized unit that combats domestic terrorism and extremist hate groups found Heifler in a group chat online, and that an undercover member of the NYPD met and discussed a plot to target Kiswani's Staten Island residence with Molotov cocktails.
"We do not tolerate any kind of violent extremism in this city. No one should face violence for their political beliefs or for their advocacy, and I'm relieved that Nerdine is safe," New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
Police sources say Heifler is an alleged member of what the FBI has classified as a far right-wing terrorist group known as the Jewish Defense League. He's being held without bail and could be back in court for a hearing this week.
Heifler is charged with unlawfully making and possessing firearms, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. The FBI said there's no threat to public safety.
