US citizen charged with attempting to assault US embassy department in Tel Aviv
Joseph Neumeyer, who can be a German citizen, approached the constructing on Might 19 with Molotov cocktails, officers say.
A twin United States and German citizen has been arrested on fees that he travelled to Israel and tried to firebomb the department workplace of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, federal prosecutors in New York have stated.
Israeli officers deported Joseph Neumeyer to New York on Saturday and he had an preliminary court docket look earlier than a federal choose in Brooklyn on Sunday. His legal criticism was unsealed on Sunday.
Prosecutors say Neumeyer walked as much as the embassy constructing on Might 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails, however acquired right into a confrontation with a guard and ultimately ran away, dropping his backpack because the guard tried to detain him.
Regulation enforcement then tracked Neumeyer right down to a lodge a number of blocks away from the embassy and arrested him, in keeping with a legal criticism filed within the Japanese District of New York.
“This defendant is charged with planning a devastating assault focusing on our embassy in Israel, threatening dying to Individuals, and [US] President [Donald] Trump’s life,” US Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi stated in a press release. “The Division won’t tolerate such violence and can prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the legislation.”
Neumeyer’s court-appointed lawyer, Jeff Dahlberg, declined to remark.
The assault came about in opposition to the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing lethal struggle on Gaza, now in its nineteenth month. Practically 54,000 Palestinians have been killed within the blockaded enclave, the place a famine is now looming as Israeli forces proceed to seal very important border crossings and uphold a crippling blockade on humanitarian assist together with meals, drugs, and gasoline.
Neumeyer, 28, who’s initially from Colorado and has twin US and German citizenship, had travelled from the US to Canada in early February after which arrived in Israel in late April, in keeping with court docket data.
He had made a collection of threatening social media posts earlier than trying the assault, prosecutors stated.
Throughout his first time period, Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital regardless of Palestinian objections, in a transfer that has not been recognised by the worldwide neighborhood. He additionally moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
