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A New Jersey man who authorities say planned to bomb the home of a prominent Palestinian activist was arrested Thursday following a weeks-long undercover operation, according to a federal complaint and the New York Police Department.
The target of the plot was Nerdeen Kiswani, a Brooklyn-based Palestinian activist who co-founded the group Within Our Lifetime.
Kiswani, 31, said he received a call on Thursday night from an FBI official informing him that his life would be threatened, and that they had handled the threat.
Authorities say they arrested the man, Andrew Heifler, while he was preparing Molotov cocktails to throw at Kiswani’s home. He had been talking to an undercover officer about the plot for weeks, and at one point he searched Kiswani’s house, the complaint said.
Heifler was charged in a criminal complaint Thursday with two gun counts. The online court docket did not list his attorney or information about the first court appearance.
According to the complaint, Heifler spoke on a video call in February with a group that included an undercover police officer about his interest in “self-defense” training and looking for a place to throw Molotov cocktails.
The next day, the complaint said, Heifler and the undercover police officer met in person and discussed wanting to destroy Kiswani’s house. He was identified in the document as “Victim-1.” He said he had Kiswani’s address and spoke to an undercover officer about making Molotov cocktails and his plan to flee the country after the attack, the complaint said.
The suspect was planning to leave the country: complaint
Heifler had planned to leave the country at the end of April, but later told an undercover officer it would be delayed until mid-May, according to the complaint.
On March 4, Heifler and an undercover officer drove to Kiswani’s residence to “look” and discussed making a dozen Molotov cocktails, the complaint said. Besides throwing them at Kiswani’s home, Heifler suggested throwing two of them into cars parked outside, the complaint said.
On Thursday, the undercover officer and Heifler met at Heifler’s home in Hoboken, NJ, the complaint said. Heifler was in possession of a large bottle of Everclear, a high-alcohol liquor, and had other equipment for making Molotov cocktails in the residence, the complaint states.
According to the complaint, Heifler also stated that some Molotov cocktails would be thrown directly at Kiswani’s residence, while others were thrown into cars.
After they created eight Molotov cocktails, law enforcement executed a search warrant at their residence and found the equipment, the complaint said. A preliminary analysis by FBI bomb experts tested positive for ethanol and concluded that the Molotov cocktails were the explosives, the complaint said.
Kiswani, 31, said he was shocked by the news, but not surprised.
“I feel blessed that they were able to stop this, but it’s something that always happens to people who speak for Palestine,” she said.
