a founding member of Gush Emunim, maintained close ties with PLO and Hamas leaders. Rabbi Froman taught at the local hesder yeshiva headed by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Froman died in 2013. Economy In 1989, the Tekoa Agro-Technology Farm established in 1986 was named Enterprise of the Year by the Israeli Journal of Agricultural Settlements. Arab-Israeli conflict In May 2001, two Israeli boys from Tekoa, Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran, were killed, by unknown person(s) who were never apprehended. In September 2001 an Israeli was shot and killed in Tekoa when militants opened fire on her family's car. In February 2002, two Israelis were killed in a shooting attack near Tekoa in an attack that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for. Status under international law Like all Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, Tekoa is considered illegal under international law, though Israeli disputes this. The international community considers Israeli settlements to violate the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory. Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them. This view has been rejected by the International Court of Justice and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Notable residents Rabbi Menachem Froman, rabbi and peace activist Dr. Stephen Wiesner, physicist whose proposals launched the field of quantum information theory, including quantum money (which led to quantum key distribution), quantum multiplexing (the earliest example of oblivious transfer) and superdense coding Marc Zell, lawyer. References External links Tekoa website Populated places established in 1975 Israeli settlements in the West Bank Gush Etzion Regional Council Hebrew Bible cities 1975 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Community settlements