Israel arrests more jihadists in Nazareth
Thursday, July 15, 2010
By: ICEJ News

Jewish 'terrorist' detained for series of unsolved Arab murders

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency disclosed on Thursday that it has arrested eight more suspected members of an al-Qaida inspired terror cell in the Israeli Arab city of Nazareth who were trafficking in weapons and plotting the murder of IDF soldiers and perhaps even Pope Benedict XVI.

The men were arrested last month on suspicion of dealing with weapons and discussing the possibility of murdering soldiers and Jews, and even targeting the pope during his visit to Nazareth last year. According to the indictment, the men expressed interest in jihad, visited radical Islamic websites dealing with jihad and weapons and terror tactics. In one case, the cell members planned to torch a Nazareth church. A ninth suspect is a minor and has not been named.

The terror cell is being linked to the al-Qaida cell exposed last month which is accused of murdering a taxi driver, planning to assault Christian pilgrims and attempting to travel to an al-Qaida training camp in Somalia.

Meantime, the Shin Bet this week also arrested a Jewish man linked to the far-right Kahanist movement who is suspected of carrying out a string of four murders and three attempted murders of Arabs since 1997. Haim Pearlman was arrested Tuesday on suspicions that he committed a series of unsolved homicides and other crimes in and around Jerusalem, but he is denying the charges.

There are reports in the Israeli media that he also has served as a Shin Bet agent, providing information on other far-right activists about a decade ago. Acquaintances of Pearlman have distributed recordings of alleged conversations between him and his Shin Bet handler in which Pearlman was urged to assassinate sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's radical northern branch, in a drive-by shooting.