Violence among the Palestinians

Humanist, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Erika Waak

Journalists are also potential victims. Immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Palestinian security forces threatened journalists covering Palestinian public celebrations on the West Bank. Palestinian journalists covering the intifada also faced harassment by the PA; those publishing stories deemed unfavorable were reportedly threatened. Broadcast media were frequently closed that year, and journalists and commentators were arrested for reporting criticism of PA policies, according to the Human Rights Watch 2001 world report entitled Palestinian Authority: End Torture and Unfair Trials. Militias affiliated with the PA have also tried to keep Israeli journalists out of Palestinian areas. In January 2002 a cameraman based in Gaza was arrested for filming the execution of accused collaborators.

Collaborators

The largest group of Palestinian civilians arrested and killed by the PA are those accused of collaborating and providing information for Israel. Marti Rosenbluth, Amnesty International's country specialist for israel and the occupied territories, said in a an interview that Israelis have always had an extensive network of collaborators; they use local Palestinians, usually those who are well known in the community.

   The PA society is fairly small and there is a lot of exaggeration about who
   is a collaborator that isn't true. Very often Palestinians are cut a deal
   and paid if they provide information. Threats are made, drugs are involved,
   or there may be a minor security offence. The Israelis are able to track
   the movement of Palestinians and use the information to get to these
   people. The Palestinian society acts vehemently toward these individuals
   [the collaborators].

The Palestinian Human Rights Monitor report entitled "Human Rights and Legal Position of Palestinian `Collaborators'" published in 2001 explains why collaboration was such a widespread phenomenon during the first intifada.

   First, Palestinians depended to a great extent upon the Israelis both for
   their livelihood and for all kinds of permits. Israel could and did use
   this dependency as a lever to obtain the information it wanted. Second,
   until the time of the first intifada, no clear directives were ever issued
   by the Palestinian leadership as to what behavior was acceptable or not.
   The third point relates to the Palestinian social structure itself and its
   basis on the hamula, the extended family or clan.

Problems that emerged as a result of collaborators at the time of the first intifada include Palestinian factions that comprised gangs of masked men who punished immoral behavior and pursued alleged collaborators. The report states:

   At the same time, Israel increasingly needed collaborators to track down
   wanted men and to gather information in those areas that Israeli soldiers
   could not readily access. In the midst of this vigilantism many innocent
   people--both women and men--were mutilated or killed as well, merely upon
   the suspicion or rumor of collaboration or as a result of a personal grudge
   or vendetta. [The first intifada] was a time of terror in the occupied
   territories, where the most basic guarantees of the rule of law were
   completely ignored.