On Monday, vigilant policemen in the Old City of Jerusalem caught a 24-year-old Arab woman who was planning to commit a terror attack, according to Israeli police.

The woman, a Palestinian Authority resident, raised the suspicion of policemen stationed in the city. They checked her bag and found a large knife.

The woman said she was there to stab police officers.

This wasn’t the woman’s first time. In fact, she had been previously caught three times with a knife.

In her previous attempts, she was caught at a Hebron checkpoint where she said she was planning to stab security personnel.

Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg Ikar is expected to be invited for police questioning with a warning, as part of a large-scale investigation of the Netanya municipality which culminated with a raid of city hall Monday morning. A senior source in the police has told Haaretz that the mayor and members of her family may be suspects. Searches in the homes and offices of several suspects as well as offices in Netanya’s city hall building have yielded documents and other content. Three men, including an attorney and a developer have been detained for questioning.

According to an Haaretz investigation, the mayor’s family members have been involved in construction projects associated with members of tycoon Yitzhak Tshuva, the chairman of El-Ad Group which owned the New York Plaza Hotel.

Investigators of the Lahav 433 crime-fighting umbrella organization within the Israel Police along with Income Tax investigators on Monday carried out raids in multiple locations in the coastal city of Netanya. Also on hand were the Prohibition of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Authority, and the State Attorney’s Economic Department. A preliminary announcement states that the investigation is based on suspicion that elements involved in construction have promoted their interests illegally with the Netanya municipality, among other things through bribery and while committing tax violations.

Back in 2007 police closed a similar investigation of Mayor Feirberg for lack of sufficient evidence.

Feirberg is the first female mayor elected in Netanya and one of very few women who have served as mayors in Israel. She was first elected in 1998, and again in 2003, 2008 and 2013. She has won a prize for efficient management from the Union of Local Authorities in Israel.

Netanya is one of the most affluent cities in Israel, and has attracted a large population of Russian and French immigrants. The city is considered one of the cleanest in Israel, with a long stretch of sandy beaches. It features of balanced mix of secular, national-religious and Haredi Jews, and is home to a growing Arab population.

Israeli District Court last week ruled that Jews commit a crime when they enter without prior arrangement with security forces an area where their lives would be in danger due to Arab violence. The area in question, Joshua’s Tomb in Samaria, is in Area B where there are no restrictions on Jewish travel. On its face the ruling is tantamount to a NY City judge punishing a victim of violence for entering a dangerous neighborhood without first receiving police permission.

Judge Zahava Bustan of the district Court in Lod last Thursday rejected an appeal submitted by legal aid society Homenu attorney Hai Haber over the detention and removal of 13 Jews who wanted to pray at Joshua’s Tomb near the city of Ariel and were attacked by Arabs from the village of Kifl Haras, where the Jewish shrine is located.

Attorney Haber argued that the group, which had been punished by the court — they were ordered to stay out of Judea and Samaria for 60 days — did not commit any crime, since entry into the Arab village is legal to Jews. Kifil Haras is located in Area B, which Israeli citizens may enter at will, just as they are permitted to drive on sections of Route 60 which cuts through the Area B Arab town of Hawara, as well as on the road from Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Nokdim.

Haber added that by punishing the victims of terrorism rather than going after the terrorists who attacked them, police and now the court are encouraging terrorism. He also argued the 60-day restraining order was needlessly harsh, since there is no ongoing police investigation which the restrained individuals could potentially be interrupting. Rather it was purely punishment for punishment’s sake on the part of the court.

Judge Bustan ruled on the appeal that even in cases where it is legal for Jews to enter, when there is danger of Arab violence the Jewish visitors must first request the consent and support of the security forces, because they are, inevitably, going to be called on to rescue them.

Honenu issued a statement saying, “All of Judea and Samaria, and, indeed, all of Eretz Israel is considered dangerous territory. The decision constitutes a prize and an encouragement to terrorism, since the court decided that a village where violence is used against Jews would become verboten to Jews without rearrangement with the Army. In a sovereign country of laws, it is the role of security forces to facilitate the safe access of civilians to every area where they are permitted to be. It is inconceivable that an area where entry is permitted, especially a holy site where Jews have been visiting for years, would be closed on account of a failure to enforce the law, and law-abiding worshippers would become criminals due to the failures of police and the Army.”

“Today it’s Breslov Hasidim at Joshua’s Tomb, tomorrow it would be hikers who are attacked on a trip, and next it would be orphans who attend their parents’ graves on Mt. Olives, which is well-known as a dangerous area.”

(See also: Legal Group Challenging Police on Criminalizing Entry into Judea and Samaria Area B)

Is entering Area B without coordinating it with the authorities a criminal offense? Israeli police have apparently begun to charge Israeli citizens who enter these (few) parts of Judea and Samaria where, according to the Oslo agreements, the PA enjoys civil control and security is managed jointly by Israeli and PA forces.

On Friday, August 26, the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court agreed to a police request to distance a group of 13 Breslov hasidim from Judea and Samaria for a period of 60 days because on Thursday night they had entered the village of Kifil Haras (Timnat Heres, location of Joshua’s tomb), near Ariel in Samaria, to pray at the tomb. The group was attacked by rock-throwing Arabs. Soldiers and police who arrived at the scene promptly detained the Jews.

Kifil Haras is located in Area B, which Israeli citizens may enter at will, just as they are permitted to drive on sections of Route 60 which cuts through the Area B Arab town of Hawara, as well as on the road from Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Nokdim.

Legal aid society Honenu attorney Chai Haber said in a statement Monday that he finds it difficult to understand the police unprecedented approach, “claiming that entering Area B, which is permitted to Israeli citizens, constitutes the criminal offense of ‘public nuisance,’ due to the fact that Arab terrorists throw rocks and endanger the lives of Israeli citizens.”

As is often the case in these hearings, Judge Smadar Abramovitch-Kollende sided with the police and ordered the restraining of all of 13 detainees from entering any part of Judea and Samaria for 60 days.

Haber complained against Israeli security forces who detained his clients. He said that “instead of protecting the worshippers, the IDF and the police decided to detain them. I was not surprised to hear from the police representative during the deliberation that not one of the rock-throwing Arabs had been detained.”

“This is a slippery slope,” Haber argued, adding: “Tomorrow the IDF could decide that instead of dealing with the individuals throwing rocks on the roads, they will detain the Jewish residents driving on the main roads, some of which are in Area B. We will file an appeal on the scandalous decision to distance the worshippers from all of Judea and Samaria.” He also wondered “why it is that the left-wingers who entered [Area A] Ramallah [in June 2016] and were attacked [by local Arabs], were not detained, while the worshippers who entered Area B were detained.”

The police argued that although entry to the Area B village of Kifil Haras is permitted to Israeli citizens, there are scheduled, guarded entries to the village, and because the Breslov group did not coordinate their arrival with security forces they were charged with being a “public nuisance” and with “disturbing a public servant in the performance of his duty.” Police claim that by riding into the village unaccompanied, the hasidim provoked local Arabs’ anger, endangering their own lives and the lives of the soldiers who were sent into the village to protect them. In court, the police argued that a week earlier Breslov hasidim had entered the city of Shechem (Area A) in order to reach Joseph’s Tomb in Area C — which police believed bolstered their demand to bar them from all of Judea and Samaria, including Area C.

As we mentioned earlier, attorney Haber asked police in court whether the rioting Arabs had been detained and was told that none of them had been picked up, because, according to police testimony, security forces did not want to “create a provocation, but rather acted to save the lives of the suspects.”

But they did much more than save their lives, as Haber noted: the Jewish worshippers, some of them only 14 years of age, were detained for interrogation at 3 AM and brought to court only after 2 PM the next day. This was in violation of Israel’s Youth Law. Another violation: their parents were not invited to the court deliberation. Haber said some of the minors complained of police brutality and one of them said that a policeman threatened him with a Taser gun.

Seven young men and women who were detained by police on Monday on charges that their prayer outside the Temple Mount constituted a disturbance of the public peace, were released after police demanded that they sign a restraining order barring them from the Old City for 15 days, legal aid society Honenu reported.

Six of the detainees refused to sign the order and were released on the condition that they appear in Magistrate Court Tuesday, when police will be asking the court to bar them from the Old City.

Honenu attorneys have been complaining repeatedly that Jerusalem Police are so fearful of Arab rioting that they have begun to target Jews who are not attempting to disrupt the unholy status quo of the Temple Mount, but are merely engaging in action that might potentially anger the Arabs — regardless of the fact that the action is absolutely legal.

A Jewish woman, 18, was detained overnight Sunday, then brought before a judge and sent back to jail for the crime of praying outside the Cotton Gate leading into the Temple Mount, the Temple Organizations Headquarters reported. Several Jewish groups are accusing police of an ongoing campaign of harassment against Jews who stand in prayer outside the Temple Mount, despite the fact that the current status quo that permits Arabs to pray inside the sacred compound while forbidding Jews from doing the same does not cover the area outside.

The young woman, a resident of a Mt. Hebron community, was charged by police of disturbing the public order for walking around the Temple Mount and, police claim, even tried to enter the compound. The woman denied the charge of attempting to enter the Temple Mount, and insisted that walking around the site is not against the law.

The woman and a female minor were arrested Sunday afternoon. The minor was released and ordered to return to court Monday. Her friend refused to sign a restraining order that would keep her outside the Old City, and was therefore kept behind bars overnight.

Honenu legal aid society attorney Nati Rom filed an urgent appeal which was denied at 10 PM by Magistrate Court Judge Miriam Kaslasi, who said the woman will stay in jail overnight pending her signing the restraining order.

At the hearing on Monday morning Judge Kaslasi partially accepted police requests and issued a 7-day order restraining the minor from entering the Old City, and a 15-day order against her friend. But the two were not compelled to sign a personal bond in order to be released.

Later on Monday, Honenu reported that a Jewish man who wanted to pray outside the Iron Gate of the Temple Mount was detained, but released after only 20 minutes.

Honenu attorneys have been complaining repeatedly that Jerusalem Police are so fearful of Arab rioting that they have begun to target Jews who are not attempting to disrupt the unholy status quo of the Temple Mount, but are merely engaging in action that might potentially anger the Arabs — regardless of the fact that the action is absolutely legal.

Attorney Sinaia Harizi-Moses, who represented the two women Monday on behalf of Honenu, said “Police systematically abuse the power of their office to thwart the legal rights of citizens, creating a most problematic reality.”

Attorney Rom said his client, who has no criminal record, spent the night in jail for no reason at all. “The police on their own rescinded some of their claims the next day and released the two young women,” he noted, adding that this has become a common police tactic against Jews whose legal conduct might upset Arabs.

A raid by Israel Police, the Poultry Council and the Income Tax Authority has led to the seizing of some 30,000 unsupervised eggs at the home of a Shfaram resident. The eggs were stored in poor condition, without refrigeration. Poultry Council staff determined the eggs were dangerous for human consumption.

The owner of the illegal eggs was detained on suspicion of storing and trading eggs that are unfit for consumption. The eggs were seized and destroyed by the Poultry Council.

Over the summer, Israel has experienced an outbreak of salmonella that was related to the effect of the unusual heat conditions on poorly stored food, including eggs. Children and pregnant women are especially susceptible to these bacteria because their immune system is naturally weaker.

Eggs that are not grown under proper supervision and are not stored properly endanger public health, causing many cases of hospitalization each year, the Police Spokesperson’s office said in a statement that described the raid. The announcement also noted that illegal egg sales hurts the legitimate egg growers who produce and market their eggs in keeping with proper conditions.

Shfar’am. A.k.a. Shefa-‘Amr, is an Arab city in Israel’s northern district. According to the 2012 census, the city has a population of 38,300, with a Sunni Muslim majority alongside large Christian and Druze minorities.

The Shfaram Ancient Synagogue was active as late as 1845. A Christian resident of the town holds the keys to the building. The synagogue was renovated in 2006. The tomb of Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava, who was captured and executed by the Romans in the second century CE for ordaining Rabbis, is located in Shfaram and attracts many Jewish visitors.

They should avoid the eggs.