On March 26, 2026, a man described by authorities as a Jewish extremist was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and New York City police in Hoboken, New Jersey. He is accused of planning to attack Nerdeen Kiswani’s Staten Island home with a Molotov cocktail. He has been charged with manufacturing and possessing a dangerous weapon.
According to a New York City police officer, the suspect was allegedly a member of a Jewish Defense League group known as JDL 613.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated that the suspect intended to flee to Israel after carrying out the attack. The mayor emphasized that extremism of any kind will not be tolerated in the city and that no one should face violence because of their views.
Nerdeen Kiswani, 31, is a Palestinian American activist and organizer. She is the co-founder and leader of Within Our Lifetime, a New York–based pro-Palestinian organization.
This article by Richard Silverstein examines an alleged assassination plot against Nerdeen Kiswani and places it within the broader context of persistent Islamophobia in the United States. The arrest of a man reportedly linked to an extremist group suggests that hostility toward Muslims and Palestinians can extend beyond rhetoric and, in some cases, escalate into planned violence.
According to the article, incidents like this are not isolated but reflect a wider climate shaped by online hate, political rhetoric, and longstanding biases.
You can read the full opinion piece by Richard Silverstein for The New Arab here:
Nerdeen Kiswani plot: Has anti-Arab lynching arrived in the US?
