JERUSALEM (JTA) — 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.
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