Settler arrested over string of terror attacks
West Bank settler Ya'akov Teitel
The arrest this week of an American-Israeli West Bank settler accused of perpetrating terror attacks against Palestinians, Israeli policemen and left-wing activists has raised concerns about the level of checks made on people making aliyah.
On Sunday it was announced that Ya'akov Teitel, who officially immigrated to Israel from Florida in December 2000, had admitted to being responsible for a series of crimes after being arrested three weeks earlier.
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The 37-year-old Teitel, whose wife Rivka Pepperman hails from Manchester, is accused of murdering two Palestinians in 1997 - a shepherd close to Mount Hebron and a taxi driver - when he lived in Israel briefly three years before making aliyah, as well as injuring a number of other people with home made bombs over the last three years.
According to police, a cache of arms was found in a secret store location close to Teitel's house in the Shvut Rachel settlement, which included an M16 rifle and a glock pistol.
Teitel, a father of four who worked from home setting up internet sites, is believed to have been responsible for a September 2008 pipe bomb attack on the home of Hebrew University politics professor and renowned Peace Now supporter Ze'ev Sternhell which left the academic injured.
Police also said he admitted planting another bomb at the home of a Christian Evangelical family in the settlement of Ariel in March last year and he had injured policemen in bomb attacks, allegedly protesting against gay pride marches in Jerusalem.
"He is like a serial killer. This guy was a Jewish terrorist who targeted different types of people," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. "He was deeply involved in terrorism in all different levels."
Teitel's wife had made aliyah from the UK with her family in 1981 and moved to Shvut Rachel, north of Jerusalem, after her marriage six years ago.
Her sister, Sarah Avitan, had been living there for the previous nine years, and said she was shocked to find out about her brother-in-law's secret life.
"He is a very quiet man, introverted and doesn't get involved much in society - even with us, even though we are family, we didn't really speak to him much," she told The Jerusalem Post.
Avitan, who is married to an Israeli, said she hopes he will be found to be innocent as it is not the way her family approaches life in Israel.
"None of us believe that violence is the solution," she said. "It is not our way. We believe in the rule of law, we believe in the nation, we have brought up our children to love the nation and to serve it."
While it was first thought that Teitel acted alone, on Tuesday his neighbour Yosef Spinoza was arrested on suspicion of collaborating in some of the attacks.
There are still doubts over Teitel's admission to some seven attacks, as he also confessed to carrying out a shooting attack on a gay centre in Tel Aviv in August but police are sure he was not the attacker.
"We will cross-check the police evidence and check his confessions. I don't
know if he lied or told the truth," Teitel's lawyer, Adi Keidar, said.
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