Published: 8 October 2026
Last updated: 8 October 2026
A maths professor from Bar Ilan University has been arrested for planning a massive terror attack against Israel's Arab citizens, with the aim of killing at least 600 Arab Israelis, including children.
Shahar Nevo planned simultaneous attacks at 12 sites inside Israel, East Jerusalem and the West Bank “to cause their flight and expulsion to Jordan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip,” according to an indictment filed on Monday. Nevo’s plan specified that 600-700 people should be killed to fuel this exodus and that no children should be spared during the assaults. He had spent more than three years working on the plan and had “carried out a great deal of varied preparatory work”.
During a court hearing earlier this week, Nevo said that his attorney suggested to him that he act a bit crazy to try and lighten his eventual sentence, but that he rejected the idea. “I am completely competent, and I stand behind my actions,” he said.
From incitement to action
Arab leaders say Nevo's plan translated into action the anti-Arab incitement of the government and its supporters.
“Incitement doesn’t end with incitement. It moves on to criminal actions against citizens. The lecturer merely translated what was [said] among the politicians and in the media into action,” said Jamal Zahalka, chair of the Higher Follow Up Committee, the coordinating body for Arab leaders in Israel.
Zahalka says the committee will try to convince the international community to press Israel over alleged incitement “so the government will see there is interest in this and it can’t keep acting in the dark.”
Nevo’s is not a lone gunman story like Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of 29 Palestinians at mosque prayers in Hebron in 1994. Other right-wing extremists, including Knesset candidate Moshe Feiglin, had at least some knowledge of the plan, called “The People will carry out Transfer”.
