B'Tselem Report Collaborators in the Occupied Territories: Human Rights Abuses and Violations, Comprehensive Report, January 1994

The West Bank Handbook, Kaneh Publishers, Jerusalem, 1987 (Hebrew), p. 81.

91 The incident described here is based on conversations by a representative of B'Tselem with his brother, Yosef a-Taher, as well as neighbors of Taher Muhammad a-Daniali in August, 1993.

92 Meron Benvenisti, op. cit., p. 86.

93 Ibid, p. 118.

94 UNC circular no. 11, March 19, 1988.

95 UNC circular no. 12, April 2, 1988.

96 UNC circular no. 15, May 7, 1988

97 UNC circular no. 19, June 8, 1988.

98 UNC circular no. 37, March 29, 1989.

99 UNC circular no. 40, May 22, 1989.

100 Meiron Benvenisti, op. cit.

101 Ibid, p. 11. In 1982-1983, the Civil Administration made available to the village leagues financial support totalling $12 million.

102 Moshe Ma'oz, The Palestinian Leadership in the West Bank, Reshafim Publishers, Tel Aviv, 1985 (Hebrew), pp. 208-212.

103 Ibid.

104 Ma'ariv, October 24, 1989.

105 Shlomo Gazit, The Carrot and the Stick: The Israeli Administration in Judea and Samaria, Ibid., pp. 123-124.

106 A-Sh'ab, February 7, 1986.

107 See also Nadav Ha'etsni, Ma'ariv, December 29, 1989.

108 Ma'ariv, April 16, 1991.

109 On this subject, see also the reporting of Lamiah Lahud, Yerushalayim, May 22, 1992.

110 Statements concerning instances of rape have been taken by B'Tselem (for example, the statement made by A.H. on December 19, 1993); however, the taboo nature of this subject in Arab society means that it is impossible to obtain reliable numerical data concerning the number of women who have been raped by members of gangs during the Intifada on the grounds of collaboration or immoral behavior.

111 Based on research by B'Tselem, indictments, court verdicts, and newspaper reports.

112 Anat Tal-Shir, "I'm Afraid They'll Come Again," Yediot Aharonot, April 25, 1989.

113 Based on portions of the testimony of Khaled Muhammad Ahmad 'Abd a-Dayyim, given to B'Tselem on August 6,1993.

114 Under Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, governments are obliged to refrain fromtorture and from executions without trial. This obligation also applies when the State's existence is in danger.

115 On the position against the death penalty position from the viewpoint of a human rights organization see: Amnesty International, When the State Kills... The Death Penalty v. Human Rights, London, Amnesty International Publications, 1989.

116 See the introduction to the Report, pp. 13-15.

117 Theodore Meron, "Declaration of Minimum Humanitarian Standards," American Journal of International Law, vol. 85, 1991, pp. 181-375. This Declaration was initiated by non-governmental organizations and thus has no official legal status. Nevertheless, the Declaration has recently gained United Nations recognition, and has gradually acquired international status. See: Hans-Peter Gasser, "Humanitarian Standards for Internal Strife: A brief review of new developments," pp. 221-226.

118 See also Part D below, on the PLO leadership's view on the killing of suspected collaborators.

119 According to Associated Press figures, 22 Palestinians were killed in the first year of the Intifada on suspicion of collaboration, and 131 in the second year. According to the IDF Spokesperson's figures, the number of such killings was 20 in 1988, and 140 in 1989.

120 Strike forces" is the general name for para-military groups involved in confrontations with soldiers and the investigation and punishment of suspected collaborators. Each of the Palestinian organizations operated such a body.

121 Jamal Hamad, Time Magazine correspondent in conversation with a B'Tselem representative, June 22, 1993.

122 See B'Tselem, Activity of the Undercover Units in the Occupied Territories, May 1992.

123 UNC circular No. 9, March 2, 1988.

124 Yizhar Be'er, Ha'aretz, November 10, 1989.

125 Yizhar Be'er, Ha'aretz, December 3, 1989.

126 The information about Abu Samhadanah's activities and the cell which he commanded is based on conversations with senior Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip, including a key piece of testimony given to B'Tselem by one of the commanders of the Fatah's military establishment in the Gaza Strip (the testimonies were given to B'Tselem on October 21-23, 1993 in Rafah), as well as other B'Tselem testimonies.

127 Moshe Zunder, Tel Aviv, "The Monster from Rafah," May 28, 1993.

128 Testimony to B'Tselem by J., a member of the Fatah Hawks, October 21, 1993.

129 Muslim Palestine, No. 7, September 1990, pp. 2-3.

130 On GSS methods of interrogation see Intifada:_Ill-treatment,_Moderate_Physical_Pressure_or_Torture'>B'Tselem, The Interrogation of Palestinians During the Intifada: Ill-treatment, 'Moderate Physical Pressure' or Torture?, March 1991.

131 Yizhar Be'er, "Spit Out from a People," Ha'aretz, May 20, 1991.

132 See complete testimony, Part C, Chapter 2.

133 Dr. Yehuda Hiss, Director of the Forensic Medicine Institute in a lecture at Tel-Aviv University on June 11, 1993; Hadashot, June 15, 1993.

134 Based on testimony given to B'Tselem by Ra'ed's father, Na'im Badawi Diriyah, and Ra'ed’s brother-in-law, on January 3, 1994. Ra'ed Diriyah himself is in Jordan.

135 See complete testimony, Part B, Chapter 6.

136 According to testimony of the Zakarnah family to B'Tselem on June 28, 1992, Muhammad Zakarnah had been a collaborator since 1969.

137 Based on B'Tselem testimony taken in the town on June 28, 1992, as well as Ha'aretz, Yediot Aharonot, Hadashot, Ma'ariv, and Davar, of February 25, 1988.

138 Ma'ariv, February 26, 1988.

1 From the testimony of B.J., a former member of the Command, it appears that the Struggle Committee at Megiddo Jail, for example, included members who were collaborators.

2 Ibid.

3 Boaz Ganor, "Fair Trial in the Territories - Murder of Collaborators," in Matarah (Target), Journal of Security

Issues, No. 22, 1991 (Hebrew).

4 Description of the incident based on the testimony given to B’Tselem on September 3, 1993 by T.Y., a resident of the Shati refugee camp.

5 Ibid.

6 Roli Rosen, Kol Ha'ir, September 27, 1991, Yoram Binor, Hadashot, September 25, 1991.

7 Attorney Jawad Bulus, Rassin's lawyer, argued that she suffered from epilepsy and that "there was no understanding of her illness in the circles from which she came. They thought that she was deranged. She stabbed the tourist in order to prove that she was healthy and supported the national consensus." Kol Ha'ir, ibid.

8 In testimony to B'Tselem, one of the Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip claimed that distribution of the video tape was related to a dispute between the Fatah and the Hamas, given the interrogated woman's words on the tape according to which she had had sex with a man identified with the Hamas.

9 According to the testimony of 'Ahmad Ziud, a Silat al-Harthiyya resident, to B'Tselem, on April 20, 1989, the Palestinian Uprising Facts Information Committee, Jerusalem, and other sources.

10 See the article by Akram Haniyyah, deported from the territories, at the time advisor to Abu Jihad on territories matters, in the weekly Al Yom a-Sab'a (issued in Paris), March 18, 1988.

11 Testimony to this effect was given by collaborator 'A.H. and others to B'Tselem on August 4, 1993.

12 Israel Television Mabat news program, November 18, 1993; Kol Ha'Ir, December 24, 1993.

13 Two cases are known to have occurred prior to the Intifada, where Palestinian agents killed GSS men. In June 1980 Moshe Golan was killed in Netanyah, and in October 1987 Victor Arjun was killed in Gaza.

14 Ma'ariv, Yediot Aharonot, November 20, 1989.

15 David Regev, Yediot Aharonot, July 22, 1991.

16 Yoram Binor, Hadashot, March 6, 1992.

17 According to the Qadi 'Abd al-Aziz Wadi, who served on the revolutionary court, as stated to Dr. Saleh Abdel-Jawad in July 1991, in 'Amman, Jordan.

18 "Jawhar al-Aman," internal Fatah document from the early 1980s (undated), p. 26. In the period under discussion this document was Fatah's supreme guideline regarding collaborators.

19 For example, the Fatah document (undated, but from the 1980s) from Jeneid Prison entitled "Special Plan of Action for Reeducating the Victims and Integrating them into the Organizational System." The plan included treatment for those "who repented their collaboration... , displayed remorse, and expressed their sincere desire to return to the ranks... of the revolution and the people."

20 "Experience in Detention," internal Fatah publication, undated.

21 According to interviews conducted by B'Tselem in the Gaza Strip in August 1992. See also Maj. Gen. (Res.) David Maimon, The Terror that Was Vanquished – Repression of Terror in the Gaza Strip 1971-1972, Steimatzky Ltd., tel-Aviv, 1993 (Hebrew).

22 Meron Benvenisti, The West Bank Handbook, Kaneh Publishers, Jerusalem, 1987, (Hebrew), pp. 10-11.

23 The Jerusalem Post, November 18 and 21, 1981.

24 The Unified National Command is described extensively in Ehud Yaari and Ze'ev Schiff, Intifada, chapter 6; and Guy Bechor, PLO Lexicon, Ministry of Defense Publishing House, 1991 (Hebrew).

25 On the circulars issued by the Command and their role, see Dr. 'Abdel-Jawad, "The Original Sources of the Intifada," Majlat Aafaq Filistiniyeh, Bir-Zeit University, no. 5, summer 1988 (Arabic).

26 Unified National Command, circular no. 2, January 10, 1988; circular no. 4, January 21, 1988.

27 UNC Circular no. 9, March 2, 1988.

28 UNC Circular no. 12, April 2, 1988.

29 Meaning, apparently, the torching of houses and vehicles and other attacks on property. For example, see UNC circular no. 37, March 23, 1989.

30 UNC Circular no. 9, March 2, 1988.

31 Faisal al-Husseini, interview to Kol Ha'ir, February 16, 1990.

32 For example, UNC circular no. 25, September 26, 1988.

33 Thus the Command praised the city of Nablus, where many collaborators were killed, and urged "following in the footsteps of this progressive exemplary model," in circular no. 28, October 29, 1988.

34 Unc Circular no. 38, April 12, 1989.

35 Roni Shaked, Yediot Ahronot, April 28, 1989

36 UNC Circular no. 40.

37 UNC Circular no. 41, April 28, 1989

38 Intissar al-Wazir (Umm Jihad) in an interview to the East Jerusalem weekly a-Nadwa, quoted in Ha'aretz, July 29, 1990.

39 Interview to the Jerusalem Post, June 17, 1991.

40 See Appendix A.

41 Adnan Damiri, al-Fajr, quoted by Yizhar Be'er, Ha'aretz, June 7, 1991.

42 Ha'aretz, June 8, 1992.

43 Stated by PLO representative to Jordan 'Abd a-Rahim a-Taib, and PLO executive member Abas Zaki to a-Nahar, quoted in Ha'aretz, May 27, 1992.

44 Ha'aretz, May 18, 1992.

45 Al Hamishmar, May 25, 1992.

46 The judges accepted the claim by the defense that Kamil had received orders directly from Yasser 'Arafat: Haim Broida, Yediot Aharonot, December 9, 1993.

47 Ha'aretz, June 15, 1993.

48 Khaled Abu Tuameh, Jerusalem, August 10, 1990.

49 Samir Abu Shamallah in an interview broadcast on “The Sixth Night” (Israel TV, Channel 2), November 26, 1993.

50 For example, Yediot Aharonot, September 26, 1993, and on Israel Radio's morning newsreel, same date.

51 Yediot Aharonot, November 30, 1993.

52 Hadashot, November 1, 1993.

53 In an interview to Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, November 5, 1993.

54 The letter from to Faisal al-Husseini is appended to this report.

55 Press communique issued by Amnesty International, November 5, 1993

56 Hamas circulars, from the first one, issued on December 14, 1987, until circular no. 88, of July 5, 1992, and several special manifestos: a manifesto distributed in the Gaza Strip in March 1989, entitled "Hamas al-Mujahidin," one of Hamas's military bodies; a manifesto of June 12, 1992, entitled "Current Priorities in the Palestinian Struggle," dealing with the collaborators issue; and a special manifesto of June 28, 1992, "Let the Voices of those Granting Protection to the Collaborators Fall Silent," signed by "The Battalions of the Shahid [Martyr] 'Iz a-Din al-Qassam - Hamas Palestine." See also the interview with Sheikh Ahmad Yassin appended to this report.

57 Hamas, Study on Security, Ashkelon Prison, May 1991 (Arabic).

58 'Aataf Adwan, "Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, His Life and Struggle," Gaza, 1991.

59 "Current Priorities in the Palestinian Struggle," Hamas manifesto, June 12, 1992.

60 Ha'aretz, June 14, 1992; Ma'ariv, June 13, 1992; Yediot Aharonot, June 13, 1992.

61 Al Hamishmar, October 18, 1993.

62 Letter by Lt. Gen. Rami Kedar, head of IDF Spokesperson's Information Branch, to B'Tselem, August 31, 1992.

63 Quoted in Davar, July 9, 1992.

64 We do not have complete information on the reasons for the demolition or sealing of houses; consequently, the number of houses demolished or sealed for these reasons may be higher.

65 See, among others, B'Tselem, Violations of Human Rights in the Territories 1990/91, pp. 31-46.

66 Ha'aretz, November 28, 1993.

67 Letter by Haim Yisraeli, assistant to the defense minister, to B'Tselem, November 19, 1993.

68 Letter by Haim Yisraeli, assistant to the defense minister, to B'Tselem, September 21, 1993.

69 According to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, several lynch victims were left dangling on poles for three or four days before being discovered by the IDF. See Hadashot, June 15, 1993.

70 Testimonies of the murdered man's family to B'Tselem, June 28, 1992, and Ha'aretz, February 28, 1988. (The case is described in Part C, Ch. 4.)

71 Based on an official IDF investigative report of August 25, 1990, released to then MK Elyakim Haetzni.

72 According to evidence in our possession, Moshe Dayan, when he was minister of defense, set up a secret unit affiliated with the Defense Ministry, as part of a large operation to transfer tens of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. The purpose was to thin out the population in the Gaza Strip. After a few thousand Gazans had been moved to Fahmah   some of them displaced by Israel's widening of access roads in Gaza Strip refugee camps   the operation was halted and the unit disbanded. The operation failed primarily because of opposition displayed by the evacuees and the high costs. (Information given to B'Tselem by Y.'A., a former officer in the secret unit, in a conversation that took place on October 21, 1993.)

73 The description of the village and the circumstances of its establishment are based, among other sources, on a visit by B'Tselem fieldworkers there on October 20, 1993, and on a conversation between a B'Tselem representative and Maj. Gen. (Res.) David Maimon, a former military commander of the Gaza Strip and governor of Gaza in the 1970s. The conversation with Maimon took place on October 24, 1993.

74 Ahmad Hamarshah, mukhtar of Fahmah camp, in a conversation with B'Tselem on December 19, 1993.

75 Naomi Levitsky, Yediot Aharonot, October 28, 1993.

76 Ha'aretz, October 4, 1993.

77 Ha'aretz, October 6, 1993.

 All Qoran translations from The Koran, Danwood, N.J. (trans.), Penguin, London, 1974.

 Bible translations from the Jerusalem Bible

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