A 26-year-old New Jersey man was arrested Thursday while allegedly assembling Molotov cocktails intended for use against the home of a prominent Palestinian activist in Brooklyn, federal authorities said. Alexander Heifler of Hoboken was taken into custody after weeks of surveillance by an undercover NYPD detective who had infiltrated an online group chat where the plot took shape, according to NPR.
The target of the alleged plot was Nerdeen Kiswani, a 31-year-old Palestinian activist who co-founded Within Our Lifetime, an organization that frequently leads protests in New York against Israel and the war in Gaza. Kiswani lives in Brooklyn with her husband and infant son. She said law enforcement officials informed her late Thursday that they had disrupted a threat on her life.
The investigation was carried out by the Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism unit within the NYPD’s counterterrorism bureau, CNN reported. An undercover detective first identified the threat online and then engaged with Heifler in person over the course of several weeks. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the officer tracked the threat “first online and then in person,” allowing the department to disrupt the planned attack and take Heifler into custody.
According to an NYPD spokesperson cited by CBS News, Heifler first expressed interest in attacking Kiswani’s home in the online group chat on February 10. He then met with the undercover officer in person on February 11, March 4, and again on March 26 — the day of his arrest. During a video call in February with a group that included the undercover detective, Heifler expressed interest in training for self-defense and wanting space to throw Molotov cocktails, according to a court filing written by an FBI agent.
The plot grew more concrete on March 4, when Heifler and the undercover detective drove to Kiswani’s residence to conduct surveillance. During that trip, the two discussed making approximately 12 Molotov cocktails to throw at her home and two cars parked outside, according to the criminal complaint. They also reportedly devised an escape plan that included using a fake license plate and steps to obscure their DNA evidence, Gothamist reported.
When law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Heifler’s Hoboken residence on Thursday, they recovered eight completed Molotov cocktails. Among the components he had assembled was a large bottle of Everclear, a highly flammable alcohol. FBI bomb technicians conducted a preliminary analysis of the devices, and a field test of the liquid inside tested positive for the presence of ethanol, according to Newsweek.
According to an official briefed on the investigation, Heifler planned to flee to Israel following the attack. He identified as a member of the JDL 613 Brotherhood, a New Jersey-based group founded in 2024 that describes its members as Jewish warriors fighting rising antisemitism. The group’s website states it is inspired by the original Jewish Defense League, which was linked to numerous bombings and attempted assassinations of Arab American political activists in the 1970s and 1980s.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the suspect was a member of an offshoot of the Jewish Defense League, which the FBI has designated as a known violent extremist organization, according to ABC7 New York. “We will not tolerate violent extremism in our city,” Mamdani said in a statement. “No one should face violence for their political beliefs or their advocacy. I am relieved that Nerdeen is safe.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul echoed those sentiments. “No one should be targeted or live in fear for expressing their beliefs,” Hochul stated. “Grateful to law enforcement for swiftly disrupting this abhorrent plot.”
An NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that Heifler was unknown to the department before the online threat was identified. Kiswani, a Palestinian and U.S. citizen, was born in Jordan and came to America as a refugee when she was a year old, according to court records. She founded Within Our Lifetime in New York City in 2015 to organize demonstrations, boycotts, and pressure campaigns against Israel and its occupation of Palestine.
Heifler was charged in a federal criminal complaint with separate counts of making and possessing destructive devices, each carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He made an initial appearance in New Jersey federal court on Friday afternoon. It was not immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney.
