A right-wing Israeli extremist arrested this week over a string of stabbing attacks is suspected of murdering four Palestinians and attempting to murder another seven, according to details of the investigation released on Thursday.
Chaim Pearlman was arrested Tuesday, initially on suspicion of carrying out two murders in 1998, and for a series of attacks on other Palestinian victims over the last 12 years. The Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court on Thursday extended his remand by six days.
Pearlman, a resident of Givat Washington near Yavneh, is a well known figure on the far right. At the end of the 1990s he studied at a yeshiva identified with Rabbi Meir Kahane's doctrines, and he was a member of the outlawed extremist group Kach.
Pearlman was arrested a few months ago for hanging wanted posters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
After Pearlman was arrested Tuesday night, the head of the team of Shin Bet security service investigators, identified only as Adam, banned him from meeting with his lawyer for three days. Such a step is taken only in extraordinary circumstances, when the Shin Bet fears that a suspect's meeting with a lawyer might obstruct the investigation.
Pearlman's supporters, including right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the members of Honenu, which helps pay the legal costs for Israelis prosecuted over confrontations with Arabs, were present in the courtroom Wednesday.
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