December 9, 2009

The trial of alleged U.S.-born Jewish terrorist Yaakov (Jack) Teitel opened in Jerusalem.

Teitel is charged with two counts of murders, five counts of attempted murders, incitement, weapons violations and one count of arson. His trial began Wednesday in Jerusalem District Court.

He reportedly refused when the judge requested that he stand. The only words he uttered in the courtroom, according to reports, was “God is King.”

Teitel, 37, was arrested Oct. 7 in a joint police-Shin Bet operation. Along with allegedly killing two Palestinians and attempting to murder five Jews and Arabs, he also allegedly assembled a package bomb that seriously injured the son of a messianic Jew and set up a pipe bomb near the home of prominent left-wing professor Ze’ev Sternhell.

A Florida native, Teitel made aliyah in 2000 and is a resident of the Shvut Rachel outpost in the northern West Bank. He has four young children.

Several relatives of Teitel’s victims attended the hearing.

Thousands of right-wing activists converged on Jerusalem to protest against the construction freeze in the West Bank.

The protest, called “Break the freeze—Continue to build,” was held Wednesday evening in Jerusalem’s Paris Square, located near the prime minister’s official residence.

“When Netanyahu speaks of a settlement freeze he means a disengagement,” lawmaker Aryeh Eldad of the National Union told the protesters. “Jews are not popsicles; you don’t freeze us so fast”

“The people of Israel are telling you today: we are not frozen so fast and we are not beaten so fast,” he added.

Hundreds of buses from throughout the country, including from West Bank settlements, brought protesters to the demonstration. Settler leaders and mayors, Knesset members and Israelis affected by the construction ban were set to speak at the event, which was organized by a coalition of right-wing organizations.

On Nov. 25, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 10-month building freeze on all housing starts in Jewish West Bank settlements in an effort to bring the Palestinians to the peace negotiating table.

Egypt has started to build an iron wall on its border with the Gaza Strip, an Israeli newspaper reported.

The wall is being constructed to shut down smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported.

It will be about 6 miles long and go down about 100 feet into the ground, according to the newspaper, citing Egyptian sources who said the wall will be impossible to cut or melt.

Ha’aretz said that Egyptian security officials nearly every week try to destroy or render impassable smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.

Golda Meir sought to prevent handicapped and sick Jews in Poland from immigrating to Israel when she served as foreign minister.

A letter written in 1958 by Meir to Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Katriel Katz, was discovered recently by Professor Szymon Rudnicki, a University of Warsaw historian, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported.

The letter, marked top secret, read: “A proposal was raised in the coordination committee to inform the Polish government that we want to institute selection in aliyah, because we cannot continue accepting sick and handicapped people. Please give your opinion as to whether this can be explained to the Poles without hurting immigration.”

Some 40,000 Polish Jews immigrated to Israel between 1956 and 1958 following the lifting of restrictions on Jews leaving Poland that were imposed after World War II.

A Jewish father and daughter were arrested for allegedly praying on the Temple Mount, according to reports.

An Arab policeman arrested the two visitors to the mount Wednesday morning as they were being shown around the site by a relative, who is a volunteer tour guide at the site.

Non-Muslims are not permitted to pray on the Temple Mount, including moving their lips in silent prayer.

The two were taken to the Kishla police station near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem for an investigation.