Jerusalem, January 1994 COLLABORATORS IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND VIOLATIONS O^-CJL - r~\)o exoN Q*JVvO^ בצלם • • »• • • BTSELEM The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Jerusalem, January 1994 COLLABORATORS IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND VIOLATIONS בצלם ;׳J B'TSELEM The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Researched and Written by: Yizhar Be'er, Dr. Saleh ,Abdel-Jawad Fieldwork assistance: Suha Arraf and Bassem Eid Assistance on writing of theoretical sections: Eitan Felner Edited by: Rachel Peretz Graphics: Dina Sher English: Jessica Bonn, Ralph Mandel, Ruth Morris, Shaul Vardi • • • /J•• • • BTSELEM מרכז המידע הישראלי לזכויות האד• בשטחים רחוב עמק רפאים 43 (קומה שניה), ירושלים 93141 טלפון 02/617271,617274, פקס׳ 02/610756 The Israeli Information Center for ־ BTSELEM Human Rights in the Occupied Territories 43 Emek Refaim St. (Second Floor), Jerusalem Tel. 02/617271, 617274, Fax. 02/610756 /.'..JI jVI jL^yi VI >U1I Jij^ •f lj־li> .VTU\ ^,alJI J_1UaJI) .iX d.jf » jLl \\£WXV\־-Li .T^ \־V0.\\־-T. ISSN 0792-8114 Thanks: • to the B'Tselem staff who worked days and nights to finish the report on schedule • to B'Tselem board members Gila Svirsky, liana Hammerman. Stanley Cohen, and Avishai Margalit • to Avi Katzman for his eye-opening comments • to Eyal Benvenisti. Edy Kaufman, David Kretchmer and Yuval Karniel • to Professor Robert Goldman. American University, Washington D.C. • to Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International • to Kenneth Ross and Eric Goldstein, Human Rights Watch • to Neil Hicks, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights • to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Hotline: Center for the Defense of the Individual B'Tselem Staff and Board of Directors: Chair, Board of Directors: Gila Svirsky Board Members: Amos Elon, Rabbi Ehud Bandel, Dr. Daphna Golan, liana Hammerman. Roni Talmor, Professor Stanley Cohen, Atty. Avigdor Feldman, Professor Paul Mendes-Flohr, Victor Shem- Tov Executive Director: Yizhar Beer Staff: Jessica Bonn, Aaron Back, Tami Bash, Yuval Ginbar, Sheli Cohen, Bassem 'Eid, Suha Arraf, Eitan Felner, Sharon Roubach, Yael Stein, Iris Tamir CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 9 1. Theoretical Underpinnings 10 2. The Phenomenon of Collaboration 15 3. Defining Collaboration in the Occupied Territories 16 4. Contents of the Report 19 5. Clarifications 20 PART A COLLABORATION IN THE TERRITORIES - BACKGROUND 23 1. The Military Government and the Residents of the Territories 26 2. The Collapse of Law and Order during the Intifada 29 a. "Policing." Juridical," and "Implementation" Operations by Militants 30 b. Popular Justice and Arbitration 31 3. Recruitment of Collaborators 32 a. Vital Services Conditional on Collaboration 33 b. Recruitment of Suspects, Defendants, and Individuals Convicted of Criminal and Security Offenses 37 c. Isqat 39 4. Violence by Collaborators and Enforcement of the Law 44 a. Follow-up on Legal Handling of Death Cases 53 PART B ACCORDING TO THE ״TYPES OF "COLLABORATORS DEFINITION OF THE PALESTINIAN ORGANIZATIONS 57 1. The Intelligence Agent ('amil al-mukhabarat) 59 2. Collaborators in Prisons and Detention Facilities (al-'asfor) 63 3. The Land Dealer (al-samsar) 71 4. The Intermediary (al-wasit) 76 5. Government Appointees and Associates 81 a. Mukhtars 82 b. Appointed Members of Village and Municipal Councils 83 c. The Village Leagues 85 d. Policemen 86 6. Morality, Family Honor, and Collaboration 89 a. Five Incidents of the Killing of Women in the Intifada 92 PART C THE TORTURING AND KILLING OF SUSPECTED COLLABORATORS 101 1. The Torturing and Killing of Suspected Collaborators as a Human Rights Violation 103 2. The Cells Involved in Torturing and Killing Suspected Collaborators 105 a. The Black Panther and Red Eagle Cells in Nablus 107 b. The Fatah Hawks Cell in Rafah 109 c. The Red Eagle Cell in Khan Yunis: Testimony 116 d. The Seif al-Islam Cell: Testimony 117 3. The Use of Torture in Interrogations 120 4. Types of Killing 123 Spot without Interrogation 123־a. Killing On-The b. Killing in the Course of or at the End of Interrogation 126 c. "People's Trials" 126 d. Lynching 129 e. Killings at Detention Facilities 132 5. Forms of Punishment other than Killing 136 a. Stigmatizing (tas/iwi/1) and Social Ostracism 136 b. Corporal Punishment 136 c. House Arrest (iqamah jabrayyah) 137 6. Coordinating Information about Suspects 139 7. Repentance 141 a. Suspected Collaborators' Attempts to Clear their Name by Attacking Israelis 143 8. The Nusseirat Refugee Camp: Investigation of Attacks on Suspected Collaborators 145 a. Breakdown of Suspicions leading to the Imposition of Punishment 146 b. Breakdown of Punitive Actions by Organizational Affiliation of the Perpetrators 146 c. Additional Figures on Suspects Punished 147 d. Four Cases of Suspected Collaborators Killed at the Nusseirat Refugee Camp 148 PART D APPROACH OF THE PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP TO THE TORTURE AND KILLING OF SUSPECTED COLLABORATORS 157 1. The PLO Affiliates 159 a. The Intifada Period 160 b. Internal PLO Criticism on the Killing of Collaborators 165 c. Responsibility of the PLO Leadership for Killings of Suspected Collaborators by its Activists in the Occupied Territories - Policy and Enforcement 168 d. After the Signing of the Israel-PLO Agreement 170 2. The Approach of the Islamic Organizations 173 a. Types of Collaborators 173 b. Collaboration as Heresy against Islam 175 c. Hamas Policy toward Collaborators 176 PART E THE AUTHORITIES AND THE COLLABORATORS 183 1. Punitive Policy Toward Palestinians Suspected of Attacking Collaborators 186 2. Protection, Rehabilitation, and Assistance to Collaborators 188 a. Protection and Rehabilitation in the Territories 190 b. Rehabilitation in Israel 196 c. Protection and Rehabilitation of Collaborators after the Israel-PLO Accord 199 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 203 1. Palestinian Accountability 205 2. Responsibility of the Israeli Government 207 APPENDICES Appendix A - Interview with Faisal al-Husseini 213 Appendix B - B'Tselem's Appeal to the PLO 216 Appendix C - Interview with Sheikh Ahmad Yasin 219 Appendix D - Ministry of Justice Response to B'Tselem Report 228 Appendix E - Professor Michael Harsigor - "Collaboration: A Historical Perspective" 230 Introduction This report deals with the responsibility of Palestinian political organizations and their activists for the torture and killing of Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the Israeli authorities during the Intifada. It also addresses violations of human rights by the Israeli authorities in the recruitment and operation of collaborators in the territories. B'Tselem made extensive efforts, including hundreds of field investigations, to compile a full and accurate list of Palestinians who were killed for what the Palestinian political organizations call collaboration. However, because of the sensitivity of this subject in Palestinian society, eyewitnesses and relatives were often loath to provide full testimony about the circumstances of death. It has always been B'Tselem's practice, in cases where the available information is incomplete, not to provide unequivocal data. Consequently, we cite only the figures of the IDF Spokesperson and of the Associated Press regarding the total number of Palestinians killed as suspected collaborators. However, in several places the report does cite partial data concerning various aspects of the subject, in cases where we were able to obtain satisfactory information. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson, 942 Palestinians were killed by other Palestinians on suspicion of collaboration between December 9. 1987, when the Intifada erupted, and November 30, 1993.' The Associated Press puts the number at 771. According to data supplied to B'Tselem by the Ministry of Defense, between 35 and 40 percent of those killed were employed by the government, or were in some other way connected to one of the branches of the Israeli administration. The remainder of those killed had no connection to the government.2 Ten to 15 percent of these were killed for criminal activity, "especially in drugs and prostitution"; and a small number were killed "because they violated the "directives of the 1. This figure was supplied via telephone from the IDF Spokesperson's office on January 5, 1994. 2. According to the Israel Police, in the pre-Intifada period there was an average of fifty murders a year for nonpolitical, criminal reasons, including killings within families to preserve family honor or for immoral behavior. See Medicine and Law, the journal of the Association for Medicine and Law in Israel, No. 8, May 1993. uprising" or, for example, sold pornographic video films in defiance of the orders of the Islamic organizations.3 Since 1967, the security forces have recruited tens of thousands of Palestinians from the territories to serve as collaborators. This was made possible in part by the great dependence of the Palestinians on services provided by the Israeli administration. In recruiting collaborators, the security forces used methods that contravene international law, such as providing certain services only on condition that the recipient cooperate with the authorities. They also resorted to . extortion and pressure, and offered various inducements. The collaborators received preferential treatment from the authorities, and many of them took full advantage of their status. Collaborators, especially those who were armed, frequently used violence against other Palestinians, whether as part