Lina Altawell
05 October 2026•Update: 05 October 2026
Israeli prosecutors charged a Bar-Ilan University mathematics professor Monday with preparing a terrorist attack, blackmail and obstruction of justice for plotting to kill hundreds of Arab citizens and force thousands more to flee to Jordan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.
The State Prosecutor’s Office said the suspect, whose identity remains under a gag order, developed a “thorough and detailed” plan over nearly three years and sought assistance from “subversive elements” in the Israeli Air Force, artillery and armored corps, The Times of Israel reported.
The suspect, around 60 years old, was arrested Sept. 17 and has admitted to the charges against him, according to prosecutors.
The indictment says he spent the past 18 months trying to recruit people for the plan and sought a “significant political figure” who could help enlist armed participants.
He eventually approached former Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin, whose Zehut faction has teamed up with extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party ahead of the Oct. 27 election, the newspaper said.
After Feiglin did not respond, the professor tried about a month ago to blackmail him into joining while using methods to conceal the plan and obstruct its discovery, prosecutors said.
Feiglin, his deputy Yitzhak Hai Zaga and Zehut executive director Shai Malka later handed police threatening letters they received from the suspect, according to a court filing.
The professor called the plan “Ayit,” Hebrew for “eagle,” also used as an acronym for a phrase meaning “the nation will carry out transfer,” referring to the expulsion of Palestinians.
He began working on the plan in February 2023 following the 2021 protests in mixed Arab-Jewish cities, the newspaper said.
Mass killings plot
As part of the preparations, the Israeli professor obtained numerous aerial photographs of the northern Bedouin town of Tuba-Zangariyye in northern Israel in March 2023 and visited the area several times to identify what he considered suitable access and attack routes.
He also prepared a 20-page document for recruits, which he kept at both his home and his Bar-Ilan University office.
The plan called for 72 armed Jewish attackers, divided into 12 groups of six, to simultaneously attack Arab population centers with firearms and axes, with support from sympathetic elements in the military.
It estimated that 600 to 700 people would be killed and stipulated that at least half of the attackers, including the professor, should hold gun licenses.
The document also called for women and children to be targeted and for the attacks to be broadcast on social media in real time to drive Arabs to flee Israel and the occupied West Bank.
It envisioned appeals for soldiers, police officers, Israeli occupiers, and criminals to join the attacks after they began.
The professor planned to gather 71 other participants at an event organized by a candidate in the 2026 election under the guise of a campaign gathering, with the attacks scheduled for the following day, the indictment said.
Around June, he asked his daughter to recruit acquaintances among the so-called “hilltop youth,” a term referring to extremist Israeli occupiers in the West Bank, but she refused.
The Central District Attorney’s Office filed the indictment at Lod District Court and asked that he remain in custody until the end of the proceedings.
Bar-Ilan University said it was “shocked” by the charges and suspended the professor pending the conclusion of the legal process.
Arab Israelis make up about 21% of Israel’s population of more than 10 million.
