We Stand With Palestinian Activist Nerdeen Kiswani Against Far-Right Zionist Attacks on Her Life

Palestine Legal is deeply appalled by last week's foiled assassination plot against Nerdeen Kiswani, a 31-year-old Palestinian activist and mother who has been a prominent voice and organizer for Palestinian liberation in New York City for over a decade.

We stand in solidarity with Nerdeen, a former Palestine Legal client who was president of City University of New York’s Staten Island campus Student for Justice in Palestine group—and with all activists who speak out for Palestinian freedom.

The foiled plot to firebomb Nerdeen's home by 26-year-old Alexander Heifler, a member of an offshoot of the far-right Jewish Defense League, the 613 Brotherhood, is the latest incident in a months-long campaign of stalking, intimidation, and racially motivated threats against Nerdeen. More broadly, Heifler's attempted attack is part of a pattern of violent anti-Palestinian racism in the U.S. that has escalated since the beginning of the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians, a situation Palestine Legal and others have been documenting since October 2023.

No one should face violence or intimidation because of their organizing for Palestine or their identity as a Palestinian. Speech supporting Palestinian liberation and criticizing Zionism is protected by the First Amendment. The attacks on Nerdeen are also attempts to silence the broader Palestine movement and undermine the broad popular support for its demands, including a U.S. embargo on weapons for Israel.

Palestine Legal stands with Nerdeen and the legal teams holding those who have attacked her legally accountable, including through her federal lawsuit under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 against Betar, a far-right pro-Israel organization whose members were found by the New York attorney general to have engaged in coordinated harassment and violence against Palestine activists. In her lawsuit, Nerdeen alleges a coordinated campaign of harassment that included cash bounties offered to anyone who would physically harm her and repeated confrontations at demonstrations across New York City.

Nerdeen is represented by Chris Godshall-Bennett and Eric Lee of Lee & Godshall-Bennett LLP as well as Daniel Korenstein and Jonathan Abady of Emery Celli Abady Brinckerhoff Ward & Maazel LLP.

Palestine Legal calls on New York lawmakers to strongly denounce the violent anti-Palestinian attacks on Nerdeen and encourages supporters to donate to Nerdeen's legal fund here.