Meet Daniel Pinner - an extremist West Bank settler

Ha'aretz
Daniel Pinner, whose monologue follows, lives in the settlement of Kfar Tapuah, which was founded in 1978..... is defined as a "religious communal" settlement.

In 1990 Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane (the son of Meir Kahane, founder of the extreme right-wing Kach party, which was banned in 1994) moved there... Following the younger Kahane, others identified with the Kach movement moved to Tapuah. He headed a yeshiva there, and the entire settlement became known for its extremism.

In recent years, as a result of an expansion of the settlement, it is less identified with Kach, and at present it has mostly young families. The rabbi of the settlement, Rabbi Shmuel Cohen, is identified with the Shas movement.

Pinner says that he does not in fact officially represent the settlement in which he lives or the settlement movement. Some of his ideas have few supporters. He is not the leader of a community or an outpost. He is known on the fringes of the right, mainly to veteran activists. It is doubtful whether the youngsters who occasionally sing his song about Yitzhak Rabin (in which every stanza ends with the words: "He went to hell") even know who he is.

Dozens, if not hundreds more like Pinner, who represent only themselves; who believe in an ideology that is not the product of any yeshiva or any specific book. In that sense, his good friend, the suspected Jewish terrorist Yaakov Teitel, resembles him...

Pinner was interviewed at his home a few weeks ago......

".....I immigrated to Israel from England 22 years ago, because every Jew belongs in the Land of Israel. There's no complete Jew and complete Judaism outside the Land of Israel...

........."I knew Yaakov Teitel. [Teitel is under arrest on suspicion of being a terrorist]. Twenty years ago we were together at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. Afterward he helped me a little with my computer. I taught him a little Hebrew. I was in his house. He's nice, helpful. Generous.

......"I knew Rabbi Kahane personally, I spoke to him, I attended his Torah classes. I was in his house once. He had a great influence on me...

"I knew Baruch Goldstein [an American Jewish settler who shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Purim, in February 1994]. We met many times. ...... It wasn't a massacre, only one person was murdered, Goldstein. ..... Baruch Goldstein, may God avenge his blood, was not brought before a court, so it's impossible to say legally that he murdered. .....

"I knew Eden Natan-Zada, may God avenge his blood [an AWOL soldier who opened fire in a bus in the Arab town of Shfaram in April 2005]. Even a truly wicked Jew, who betrayed his people, and was murdered by an Arab - I would say: "May God avenge his blood" even about him, because it's a desecration of God's name for an Arab to murder a Jew.

....."I don't mention the name of Abu Yuval [referring to Yitzhak Rabin, the father of Yuval Rabin], on the same level that I don't curse and don't use dirty words........ I say: 'May his name be erased' after his name...

........"There is no Arab village and no Arab city in the Land of Israel, but only Jewish villages where Arabs are living for the time being.

......."At the moment I have no problem with Arabs moving to Transjordan, although that is also the Land of Israel... Full story