Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., November 10, 2009 Cheshvan 23, 5770 | | Israel Time: 19:50 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Jewish World Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Focus U.S.A. Strenger than Fiction Business Travel Magazine Week's End Anglo File Books
Share |
Last update - 05:36 06/11/2009
Cases of Jewish terrorist Yaakov Teitel and Meir Amshalem bear striking resemblances
By Chaim Levinson
Tags: Yaakov Teitel 

One of the unsolved aspects of the case against Yaakov (Jack) Teitel, who has admitted to a string of murders and murder attempts over the past several years, is how the Shin Bet security service identified him as a suspect despite his reported independent loner style. He kept knowledge of his alleged activities even from his wife.

A month before Teitel's arrest in October, the Shin Bet detained another figure on the margins of the settlement movement, Meir Amshalem. Despite rumors to the contrary, the Shin Bet has said there is no connection between the activities of the two, although their paths from their dreams of a Greater Israel to the offices of the Shin Bet are remarkably similar.

Jewish farm settlements began to be established in the southern Hebron Hills of the West Bank in 1996. The local council sought a diverse population of settlers to join the effort and take control of the outposts, leading to the founding of the Yair Farm, the Maon Farm and the Yatir Farm. The movement sparked the rise of a second generation of settlers, from which the so-called hilltop youth rose to prominence, augmented by immigrants from the United States.
Advertisement

The Maon Farm was the most famous of the outposts, constituting a focal point for a new kind of settler who despised the state, opposed the establishment and most importantly couldn't care less about the Arabs, the army and the media.

Meir Amshalem was drawn into this milieu. Born in Rehovot, he ultimately married an American and established a middle-class household with a red-tiled roof in the settlement of Beit Haggai. He then sought to get involved in something new. On a West Bank hilltop not far from the settlement of Sussia in the Hebron Hills, he recruited two young people and established the Magen David Farm settlement.

Friction with local Arabs began soon after the settlement was established. Amshalem, who now lives in New York, told Haaretz: "All kinds of left-wingers and Arabs were going around and saying if something happened to the Arabs in the area, the farm was guilty [of it]. Every time something happened in the area, they would put the farm under curfew ... and take our weapons. Because of the leftists, I left the country."

It is no wonder that in this atmosphere, Yaakov Teitel, who thought the state was sexually abusing women and hated gays, leftists and the establishment, fitted in well in the environment in which Amshalem was involved. Teitel arrived in Israel in the mid-1990s and wandered around the West Bank, primarily in the southern Hebron Hills and Kfar Tapuah, sometimes observing the Sabbath in one of the settlements in the area.

At one point Teitel and his parents sought to establish a farm settlement. The Jewish Agency suggested that Teitel's family establish a farm community in the Negev, but due to bureaucratic obstacles, the plan never came to fruition. Ultimately, Teitel settled in the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel in the northern West Bank, where he raised goats.

During his recent interrogation by the Shin Bet, Teitel admitted to shooting to death an Arab shepherd from the West Bank village of Yatta in 1997 on a highway near the settlement of Carmel, five minutes from Amshalem's farm.

According to information obtained by Haaretz, Teitel was arrested by the police a short time after the shooting, and denied any involvement. In the absence of sufficient evidence to pursue a case against him, Teitel was released and he dropped off the security forces' radar screen.

Amshalem's turn came in 2001, when a Palestinian who approached the Magen David farm was shot in the stomach. Witnesses said the gunman had come from the farm. When asked about the incident by Haaretz, Amshalem said "they tested us for explosives on our hair and hands but didn't find anything. The judge told the police to release [us]."

The arrest deeply troubled Amshalem's wife, who was fed up with living in the southern Hebron Hills and wanted to return to the United States to calm down, so Amshalem settled in the United States.

This year, eight years later, Amshalem returned to Israel, by his own account to help his ailing mother, but the Shin Bet was waiting for him at the airport. They took him to Petah Tikva, where they reportedly again interrogated him about the 2001 incident, and pressed him to confess to the shooting. He denied responsibility.

The investigators reportedly also brought up the murder near Carmel, to which Teitel had confessed. "They asked me who could have done a thing like that," Amshalem recounted. "I said I had no idea. They told me it was me. I told them to hook me up to a lie detector."

Amshalem added that he was also asked about whom he knew in various settlement farm outposts. "They took me on a search of a house that I lease to someone in Beit Haggai," he said. "In the end they released me and barred me from leaving the country. I came for a week and stayed for a month."

Amshalem was set free in August of this year, and returned to New York as soon as he was allowed to leave the country. He has cut off contact with Israel, but remains concerned that the Shin Bet will re-arrest him.
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
On Arafat's deathbed
Arafat's wife read him the Koran and urged him to defeat then-PM Ariel Sharon.
No Arabs need apply
Study shows that Arabs, Ethiopians, and Haredis can't find work - even with a degree.
  1.   The Meir Amshalem case was clear Shabak harrassment 09:04  |  Dani 06/11/09
Special Offers
Advertisement
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Date Local Jewish Singles
Ready to meet your match? Join Jdate today!
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
19:46 Rahm Emanuel: Dialogue is the only path to peace
19:35 Netanyahu says meeting with Obama was 'important'
18:14 IDF to Palestinians: Bring forth Gaza war complaints
16:06 French FM: It seems Israel no longer wants peace
16:01 Gulf Al-Qaida chief: Shi'ites, like Iran, more dangerous than Jews
15:51 IDF Chief: Hezbollah has rockets capable of hitting Tel Aviv
17:12 Response / On 'exorcising' Israel bashers from the Jewish mainstream
17:54 Hamas arrests Fatah activists in Gaza ahead of Arafat memorial
08:13 TV ROUND-UP: Obama and Netanyahu meet; Assad issues warning
08:38 Can Oslo take back Obama's Nobel?
19:29 Ashkenazi: Iran is radical, but not irrational - it may still curb nukes
17:14 Brazil hosts Peres this week, Ahmadinejad later this month
16:29 Alleged Jewish terrorist to be charged with murdering two Palestinians
16:55 Holocaust-denying bishop appeals $16,822 fine in Germany
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Advert: Recommended Restaurants | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved