Israeli university lecturer planned massive anti-Arab terror attack across the country, charged for terrorism & extortion

In a highly unusual case, Israel on Monday indicted a mathematics lecturer at Bar-Ilan University for planning to carry out a massive terror attack against Israeli Arab and Palestinian civilians, including organizing kill squads to murder hundreds across the country.

To that end, he worked out a detailed plan he called “Ait,” a Hebrew acronym meaning “the people will carry out a [population] transfer,” with the ultimate goal of expelling all Arabs from Israel as well as Judea and Samaria.

The suspect, whose name remains under a gag-order, is charged with preparing to commit an act of terrorism, extortion by threats and obstruction of justice.

According to the indictment, the around 60-year-old lecturer was motivated to start planning an attack in May 2021, against the background of Hamas’s rocket attacks, the IDF’s Operation Guardian of the Walls and the resulting violent attacks and riots by Arab Israelis. He intensified his efforts after Oct. 7 and the subsequent war.

The suspect envisioned a series of simultaneous attacks by 72 armed Jewish perpetrators divided into 12 terrorist cells with 6 operatives each. Half of them were to carry legal firearms, including the suspect.

The cells were meant to fan out across the country, armed with various types of weapons, such as pistols, rifles, axes and hammers, and murder as many Arab civilians as possible.

According to the indictment, the suspect prepared to call on the Jewish public to join the pogrom with “mass killings, rapid takeover of areas of friction, roads, exits/entrances to Arab communities, mixed cities and hospitals,” including the instruction “not to have mercy even on the women and the cruel and disgusting children of theirs, not to stop in the face of pleas, to harden hearts, [as] every halt will lead to an unbearable situation of chaos and then a massacre of Jews.”

The ultimate goal was to use the panic, further amplified by the publication of the acts on social media in real time, to encourage the entire Arab population to flee outside the borders of Israel.

The plan included receiving pre-coordinated assistance from subversive elements recruited from within the IDF, including airstrikes and artillery attacks on Arab population centers. The suspect had already carried out tangible preparations, including field reconnaissance in towns like the Arab Bedouin city Tuba-Zangariyye in the Galilee.

He also prepared detailed written instructions and documents, including operational plans, ideological justifications, and targets for recruitment. For a year and a half, the suspect worked on recruiting partners without success.

The most notable target was former Knesset Member and Zehut party chairman Moshe Feiglin, who is well known for his extreme hawkish positions and is running with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party (RZP) in the elections.

The suspect envisioned he could first recruit Feiglin, and through his influence and contacts, recruit more supporters and partners. However, Feiglin first ignored him, and then reported him to the police after receiving an extortion letter.

According to the indictment, the suspect attended two public events and attempted to arrange a meeting to present a summary of the plan, but Feiglin did not respond. Around a month ago, the suspect wrote an extortion letter criticizing Feiglin for not cooperating with the plan and threatening to publicize it to damage his chances in the upcoming elections.

Feiglin and the Zehut party stated in response, “Immediately upon receiving the extortion and threatening letters from the defendant, Moshe Feiglin and the party leadership contacted the Israel Police without delay and filed an official complaint on the matter.”

“We thank the law enforcement authorities for their swift and determined action, and trust the security and judicial authorities to apply the full force of the law against those who committed the offense. The Zehut party will continue to act with public responsibility and without fear.”

Bar-Ilan University, in response to the indictment, condemned the suspect “in the strongest possible terms and is deeply appalled by the acts attributed to the lecturer in the indictment. The University’s leadership calls upon the police and the prosecution to pursue the matter to the fullest extent of the law, should the allegations be substantiated.”

“The University has, and will continue to have, zero tolerance for conduct of this nature—conduct that is fundamentally incompatible with the values we share as Jews, as Israelis, and as human beings, and that stands in clear opposition to the values of Bar-Ilan University.”