Bar-Ilan University Lecturer Indicted Over Alleged Plan to Recruit 72 Attackers for Mass Killing and Expulsion of Palestinians

A mathematics lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, in his 60s, has been indicted in Israel on charges stemming from an alleged plan to kill hundreds of Palestinians and drive them from their homes through coordinated, simultaneous attacks.

His name is under a court-imposed gag order. Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth first reported the indictment, which Middle East Eye also reviewed.

According to the indictment, the lecturer sought to recruit 72 Jewish attackers, including himself, organized into 12 cells of six people each. The cells would have been armed with firearms, axes and hammers and tasked with launching simultaneous attacks on Palestinian citizens of Israel, Bedouin communities, mixed cities, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, prosecutors allege.

The stated goal, according to the filing, was to cause Palestinians to flee or be permanently expelled toward Jordan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Prosecutors say he called the plan "AIT," an acronym for the Hebrew phrase meaning "the nation will carry out transfer."

The indictment states he began developing the plan in February 2023, after communal violence in Israel in 2021, and intensified his preparations following the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack. He is accused of conducting reconnaissance around the Bedouin community of Tuba-Zangariyye in northern Israel, scouting possible entry routes.

Prosecutors say he spent more than a year attempting to recruit participants but that none agreed to join him.

Among those he allegedly approached was Moshe Feiglin, leader of the far-right Zehut party, seeking help identifying recruits. When Feiglin did not respond, the indictment alleges the lecturer turned to blackmail, sending threatening letters warning he would publish damaging material about the politician. Feiglin and members of his party reported the threats to police.

Prosecutors have asked the court to hold him in custody through the end of proceedings, arguing his alleged ideology and the specificity of his planning show he remains an immediate danger. His defense has requested house arrest instead.

"I have exams to grade," the lecturer told the court, according to Ynet, arguing he posed no current danger.

Bar-Ilan University said it suspended him pending the outcome of the case and stated it has "zero tolerance" for the conduct described in the indictment.

The case surfaces as settler and far-right violence against Palestinians has escalated sharply since 2023. More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza began, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded more than 1,600 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage between January and mid-September of this year. A UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry report earlier this year described the surge in settler violence as unprecedented and said the Israeli government enables it through financial backing, logistical support and military protection.