For more than two decades, Prof. Shahar Nevo built an extensive career in the world of mathematics: he graduated with honors, published dozens of studies, and taught generations of students at Bar-Ilan University.
Until this week, his name was known mainly in the hallways of the math department and among those who took his courses in calculus and analysis. His online presence consisted mainly of scientific articles, course pages, exams, and lecture summaries, with no interviews, public statements, or social media presence.
However, this academic career now exists under the shadow of a severe indictment: the 60-year-old professor is accused of preparing to execute an act of terrorism, extortion by threats, and obstruction of justice. According to the indictment, he planned an attack for more than three years, with the aim of killing hundreds of Israeli Arabs.
Academic Background and Research Career
Nevo was born on October 12, 1966. He began his academic path at Tel Aviv University in 1984 and, three years later, completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1992, he moved to Bar-Ilan University, where he completed a master's degree in 1995 and a Ph.D. in 1999. He completed his master's studies summa cum laude, earning the Dean's Prize in 1996, and his doctoral dissertation was also praised. He wrote his research under the supervision of Prof. Lawrence Zalcman, an expert in complex analysis, and the two maintained a professional connection through the joint studies they published.
Upon completing his Ph.D. in 1999, Nevo joined the tenured academic faculty at Bar-Ilan. He started as a lecturer and, over the years, advanced through the ranks to Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics.
According to his official profile, he specializes in complex analysis, operator theory, and matrices of rational functions.
Over the years, he accumulated 51 academic outputs, including 40 published papers. His research activity continued uninterrupted into recent years: in 2023, he co-authored a study with Zeev Shem-Tov published in the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, and in 2024, he published another study with Tomer Menaket.
Concurrently, he maintained long-standing international collaborations, including a series of publications with the German mathematician Jürgen Grahl from the University of Würzburg, alongside participation in conferences in Israel and abroad.
In 2012, he was among the organizers of an analysis session at the Israel Mathematical Union conference and even lectured there, and in 2017 he served as a visiting researcher at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney in Australia.
Teaching Activity and Personal Profile
Alongside his research, Nevo remained an integral part of the teaching framework at Bar-Ilan. Traces of the courses he taught have been scattered online for over a decade - from exercise sheets and exams to lecture summaries prepared by students; in 2023, for example, a document titled "Summary of Infi 4 Course based on lectures by Prof. Shahar Nevo" was uploaded to the Math-Wiki website.
In the last academic year, he continued to lecture as usual. In the university's schedule, he is registered as a lecturer in the courses "Mathematics for Chemists C" and "Infinitesimal Calculus 4," and even appears as an academic advisor to students on the department website. The most recent retake exam (Moed B) for the calculus course took place on September 1 of this year, just weeks before his arrest.
Outside of academia, almost no public information exists regarding Nevo's personal life. According to the details of the case revealed in prosecution documents, he lives alone in Petah Tikva and holds a firearm license.
An examination of his past highlights the near-total absence of any non-professional dimension: despite decades at the university, dozens of studies, and generations of students, his digital footprint consists almost entirely of pure mathematics.
Online, an old personal website remains on the Bar-Ilan University server, including a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, and contact details, alongside various academic and professional profiles. Meanwhile, no public social media accounts can be definitively attributed to him, nor are there any past interviews or opinion pieces.
Even on the "Dargo" website, where students typically review teaching staff, a page exists under his name, but it has no reviews. His official page on the Department of Mathematics website, last updated on June 9 of this year, displayed him as Prof. Shahar Nevo and detailed his research areas before it was removed from the internet.
At Bar-Ilan University, officials quickly disavowed the veteran faculty member. Following the filing of the indictment, the institution stated that they "condemn and is shocked by the acts attributed to the lecturer," clarifying that he would be suspended immediately pending the conclusion of proceedings. Concurrently, his name was removed from the university's lecturers page.
The Terror Plot Details
According to the indictment filed by the State Attorney's Office to the Central District Court in Lod, the 60-year-old lecturer, a resident of Petah Tikva, planned to execute an extreme plan - which he conceived over several years out of an ideological motive. The defendant named his plan after an acronym for "Am Ya'ase Transfer" ("The Nation Will Execute a Transfer").
The Central District Attorney's Office attributes to the defendant in the indictment the commission of security offenses of preparation to commit an act of terrorism under the Counter-Terrorism Law, extortion by threats, and obstruction of justice, and is requesting that the court detain him until the conclusion of legal proceedings against him.
From the indictment filed by attorneys Roy Reis and Tomer Steinberg of the Central District Attorney's Office, it emerged that against the backdrop of the "Operation Guardian of the Walls" riots and later, with greater intensity against the backdrop of the Swords of Iron war, the defendant decided to plan and carry out numerous terror acts simultaneously, and to cause the deaths of many hundreds of Arab Israeli citizens, including Bedouins, throughout the entire country, including Arabs residing in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The plot was intended to cause their flight and permanent deportation to the territories of Jordan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip.