FYI&I:-
Israel's 'army' of Palestinian informers
It has lured many thousands to work as collaborators by offering them money or freedom in exchange for information
JERUSALEM - Across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, many thousands of Palestinians have been co-opted as informers.
Precise numbers of those on Israel's payroll are unknown but figures of up to 15,000 have been suggested by human rights groups, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
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The groups said many of these informers were offered freedom in exchange for information.
Israel's use of informants has prevented numerous suicide bombings. Yet in addition to enhancing Israeli security, collaboration has also developed a culture of suspicion such that anyone who runs a successful business or has access to hard-to-get permits is often suspected.
Since the 1993 Oslo accords, which transferred chunks of the occupied territories to Palestinian Authority control, the recruitment of collaborators has become a crucial plank of Israel's security apparatus.
The role begins simply - passing details of a neighbour's car number plate or place of work. As collaborators are drawn more deeply into the system they may be asked to infiltrate the highest levels of militant and political groups or set up targets for arrest and assassination.
Israel has stepped up its policy of targeted assassination during this intifada, typically using collaborators to arrange the hit.
'Where would Israel be without collaborators?' asks Mr Moshe Kuperburg, a former agent with Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, who recruited and ran a network of informers in the West Bank before retiring in 1999.
Mr Saleh Abdul Jawwad, head of the political science department at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, believes collaborator recruitment was one aim of Israel's recent offensive in the West Bank.
Hundreds of Palestinian men were rounded up. The declared goal was to root out the militants among them, but Mr Jawwad says during interrogation many were offered opportunities to collaborate.
'In most countries you are detained or imprisoned because you do something wrong, or plan to,' he says.
'Here almost the entire adult male population has been through this experience. I see it as a kind of refinery for producing collaborators.'
Both the human rights organisations including Israeli human rights group B'tselem and Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group have recorded testimonies from those with criminal records detailing how they were offered freedom in exchange for information, said the Monitor.
Others were shown photographs of female relatives undressing in fashion store changing rooms, and told the images would be circulated unless they agreed to collaborate.
'There are many taboos in Palestinian society that create opportunities to pressure people into collaboration,' Mr Jawwad told the Monitor.
Mr Kuperburg says his methods centred on disillusioning young militants against the organisations they joined by pointing out inconsistencies in the extremist rhetoric, or the failure of the groups to achieve the Palestinian state they claimed to be fighting for.
Others were convinced by him that they could better help their people by working for Israel because of access to credentials that allowed freedom of movement.
If all fails, there is always money: 'I make sure they know we are generous,' he says.
Mr Kuperburg, a secular Jew who speaks fluent Arabic and was trained to impersonate a Palestinian using the undercover name 'Musa', often targeted junior members of militant organisations.
'Someone who is a good student, a moderate, we will leave him alone,' he says.
'But if he is radical, we can tell him he is living in a dream. Sometimes even if he does not become a collaborator the conversation can prevent a future attack.' |
