The New York Police Department and federal authorities disrupted what officials described as a plot to assassinate the leader of one of New York’s most active pro-Palestinian protest groups and charged a New Jersey man with possessing Molotov cocktails, according to officials and court papers.
The F.B.I. notified the activist, Nerdeen Kiswani, and her lawyer late Thursday that an arrest had been made in connection with an imminent attempt on her life, but did not inform her of the motive, her lawyer said.
The man, Alexander Heifler, 26, was taken into custody after detectives and federal agents searched his Hoboken home Thursday night and found eight Molotov cocktails, officials said. He was charged Friday morning in a criminal complaint with making and possessing the devices and is expected to appear in federal court in Newark on Friday afternoon.
The criminal complaint did not specify a motive for the planned attack, which was laid out in detail in the charges.
It said the plan had been ongoing since at least February, when Mr. Heifler discussed building and using Molotov cocktails for what he described as “self-defense” on a group video call that included what a Police Department official said was an undercover detective.
Prosecutors said in the complaint that Mr. Heifler was arrested at his home shortly after he and the undercover detective built eight Molotov cocktails that he planned to use at what he believed to be Ms. Kiswani’s home address.
The complaint said Mr. Heifler had originally planned to flee the United States two days after the attack, but he told the undercover detective that his travel plans had been pushed to the middle of May.
Ms. Kiswani, 31, is the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, which has organized countless protests to draw attention to the suffering of Palestinians during Israel’s war in Gaza.
The organization has become known in New York for its at times inflammatory rhetoric and disruptive tactics, including a demonstration that led the Police Department to shut down Grand Central Terminal.
In a statement to The New York Times, Ms. Kiswani said F.B.I. agents had told her on Thursday night that “a plot against my life was ‘about to’ take place.”
She added: “I will have more to say as additional details come to light. I will not stop speaking up for the people of Palestine. Thank you for your support.”
Robert Frazer, who was sworn in Monday as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, confirmed the existence of the investigation and said there was no threat to the public.
“We thank our law enforcement partners for this work in identifying and removing this potential threat,” Mr. Frazer said in a statement.
Ms. Kiswani has drawn the opprobrium of pro-Israel groups for saying she supports the liberation of the Palestinian people “by any means necessary,” including armed resistance. Protesters at events organized by her group sometimes wave the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The group’s tactics and its use of certain slogans have led to accusations that it and its members are antisemitic. Ms. Kiswani has long denied those accusations, and argued that her activism opposes Israel, its policies and its structure as a Jewish state. A common chant at Within Our Lifetime protests is: “Judaism, yes, Zionism no! The state of Israel has got to go!”
But pro-Israel and many Jewish groups have rejected that argument, calling it a smoke screen and saying Zionism is intrinsic to the religious or ethnic identity of many American Jews.
Officially, Within Our Lifetime has a small membership that may not exceed a few dozen people. But since the war in Gaza began, its reach has grown significantly. Its protests often attract hundreds of people whose marches have closed bridges and stalled traffic in the city’s busy streets.
When Meta shut down the group’s Instagram account in February 2024, just five months after the start of the war, it had roughly 180,000 followers.
Ms. Kiswani’s activism has made her a reviled target for pro-Israel groups. In February, she filed a civil rights lawsuit against one of those groups, Betar U.S., which she said had used social media to put “bounties” on her head.
She also said the group had harassed her in person with beepers, an apparent reference to an Israeli military attack on Lebanon that used exploding pagers to kill at least a dozen people and injure thousands more in 2024.
In January, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced that Betar U.S. had agreed to stop what her office descried as “widespread persecution of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian and Jewish New Yorkers” who disagreed with its views on the Middle East.
She also said the group had agreed to dissolve its New York operations, which run its activities in the United States. It was not clear on Friday if Betar U.S. or its online activities was connected to the plot on Ms. Kiswani’s life, and the group did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Friday.
But in her statement on Friday, Ms. Kiswani accused it of being one of several “Zionist organizations” that “have encouraged violence against my family and me.”
Stephanie Saul contributed reporting, and Georgia Gee contributed research.
Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.
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