Palestine: Treatment of those collaborating or suspected of collaborating with Israel by political and militant groups (2012-July 2013)

1. Overview

Ma'an News Agency (MNA), an independent news agency that covers news in the West Bank, Gaza and developments in Israel (n.d.), indicates that "collaborators" are people "who supply information, or in some cases land, to Israel, or anyone considered an 'enemy state,' either voluntarily or by coercion" (18 Oct. 2010). JNews, an "independent source of analysis, opinion, information and news on Israel and Palestine" (n.d.), states that, according to the Director of the Department for Migrants, Refugees and Undocumented People at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, collaborators are "asked to provide information on neighbours and relatives, to infiltrate and report on activities of specific groups, or to participate in other activities as asked by Israeli security forces" (27 Aug. 2010).

Sources indicate that the types of collaborators include:

informants, who provide intelligence on specific people (MNA 18 Oct. 2010; Abdel Jawwad n.d.). In a Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) publication, Saleh Abdel Jawwad indicates that informants provide information from the outside of political activist circles (ibid.);

infiltrators, who are members of Palestinian organizations and provide information from the inside (MNA 18 Oct. 2010; Abdel Jawwad n.d.). Sources indicate that infiltrators are often recruited during prison terms, often in order to be released (MNA 18 Oct. 2010; Abdel Jawwad n.d.). Abdel Jawwad states that many people become infiltrators through the "use of torture" in prison (ibid.);

intermediaries (ibid.; MNA 18 Oct. 2010), who according to Abdel Jawwad, help Palestinians to obtain their "paperwork," as since the occupation in 1967, "Israel created a kind of occupation administration whereby any services rendered by the occupation to the population involved going through the intelligence services and a 'security check'," and some Palestinians prefer going to intermediaries for required documents rather than to the Israeli intelligence services (n.d.);

armed collaborators, who may assist Israeli forces during raids and locate homes of sought-after Palestinians (MNA 18 Oct. 2010; Abdel Jawwad n.d.);

political collaborators, who represent Israeli interests in Palestinian public life (MNA 18 Oct. 2010; Abdel Jawwad n.d.);

economic collaborators, who Abdel Jawwad describes as people who "push Israeli products onto the Palestinian market" (n.d.), and the MNA describes as people who "sell land or information to Israel for financial compensation" (18 Oct. 2010);

land dealers, who Abdel Jawwad describes as persons who "intermediate between Israelis (either settlers or the Jewish National Fund) and the general Palestinian population in order to acquire lands" (n.d.). According to the MNA, collaborators would include "either the land owner or the land dealer who facilitates the sale of Palestinian land to the Israeli government or to private buyers affiliated with a pro-Zionist organization or individual" (18 Oct. 2010).

2. Recruitment

B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization (n.d.), indicates that "Israeli security forces pressure Palestinians to collaborate" (1 Jan. 2011). In an August 2010 JNews article, the Director of the Department for Migrants, Refugees and Undocumented People at Physicians for Human Rights Israel indicated that collaborators have been recruited "using false promises ... coercion, violence and exploitation of personal distress" (JNews 27 Aug. 2010). In October 2010, the MNA stated that, according to human rights groups, "torturing prisoners remains the primary method of coercing Palestinians into passing on information to Israeli security" (18 Oct. 2010).

Several sources report that Palestinians are pressured to collaborate with Israel in order to obtain permits to get medical attention (The New York Times 2 Dec. 2012; B'Tselem 1 Jan. 2011; TRNN 11 Mar. 2013). The Real News Network (TRNN), an independent television news and documentary network (n.d.), reports that

[d]espite Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza in late 2005, it still maintains its full control over Gaza's airspace, territorial waters, and border crossings, except the Rafah crossing. It practices a policy of using blackmail against some travelers, including patients, passing via the Erez Crossing that links Gaza with the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, by asking them to collaborate and give information about the activities of Palestinian resistance groups or individuals. (TRNN 11 Mar. 2013)

Sources report on several reasons that Palestinians collaborate with Israel, including:

blackmail (The Guardian 17 May 2011; The New York Times 2 Dec. 2012);

financial incentives (The Guardian 17 May 2011; The New York Times 2 Dec. 2012), which B'Tselem indicates "takes advantage of the poverty that prevails in the Occupied Territories" (1 Jan. 2011). The New York Times reports that, according to the former head of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, collaborators are given money for expenses or a "small salary" (2 Dec. 2012);

to obtain permits (The Guardian 28 Dec. 2011; B'Tselem 1 Jan. 2011), such as work permits (ibid.) or exit permits (The Guardian 28 Dec. 2011). The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, a centre that promotes human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, especially Gaza (n.d.), reports in an interview with TRNN that it has documented "many cases by collecting testimonies from patients who were refused exit by the Israeli army after they refused to collaborate with the Israeli intelligence service" (TRNN 11 Mar. 2013);

for early release from jail (The New York Times 2 Dec. 2012; MNA 18 Oct. 2010), or, according to MNA, because they are "threatened with severe sentences if they refuse" (ibid.);

to avoid having secrets, such as adultery, exposed (The New York Times 2 Dec. 2012; MNA 14 Mar. 2013);

TRNN reports that, according to the spokesperson for Gaza's Interior Ministry, sometimes Palestinians are recruited by receiving phone calls or emails from people who pretend to be calling from international NGOs offering assistance or media companies who request reports in exchange for financial compensation (11 Mar. 2013).

The Washington Post reports that Palestinian journalists who are "friendly" with Israeli journalists and have had their pictures posted on social media sites have been labelled "collaborators" (15 May 2013). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Treatment of Palestinian Collaborators

Sources report that under Palestinian law, collaboration is punishable by death (TRNN 11 Mar. 2013; The Guardian 17 May 2011; BBC 26 July 2011).

According to the BBC, collaborators are "widely loathed in Palestinian society" (BBC 11 Apr. 2013). In 2011, the Guardian said that there have been "many documented cases of collaborators being killed by mobs or subject to summary executions" (17 May 2011). According to B'Tselem, "[s]ince the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada [September 2000], Palestinians have killed dozens of Palestinian civilians on suspicion of collaboration with Israel" (B'Tselem 1 Jan. 2011). Some were killed in "assassinations conducted by organizations" and some were "lynched by crowds of people" (ibid.).

3.1 Treatment of Collaborators by the Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority is dominated by Fatah party members (The New York Times 21 Oct. 2012; The Guardian 27 Apr. 2011). Fatah governs the West Bank, and Hamas governs Gaza (The New York Times 12 Feb. 2013; RT News 15 May 2013).

BBC reports that, in the last two decades, Palestinian authorities have executed collaborators in the West Bank and Gaza (29 May 2010). According to B'Tselem, some collaborators have been killed by "Palestinian Authority security forces as a result of being tortured or when attempting to escape" (1 Jan. 2011). B'Tselem also states that the "Palestinian Authority killed several Palestinians whom the State Security Court, in a patently unfair judicial process, had convicted of collaborating with Israel" (1 Jan. 2011). In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, the author of a 2010 report by the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel about Palestinian collaborators living in Israel stated that "in the Palestinian Authority, many land dealers that have sold to Jews have been killed" (4 Aug. 2010). The Philippines News Agency reports that on 4 May 2013, a military court in the West Bank sentenced a collaborator to death by firing squad (PNA 4 May 2013). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3.2 Treatment of Collaborators by Hamas in Gaza

TRNN reports that, since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, the government has prioritized combating collaboration (11 Mar. 2013). The Times of Israel, a Jerusalem-based online newspaper (n.d.), reports that Hamas has been "cracking down on suspected collaborators" since the November 2012 conflict in which collaborators aided Israeli forces by identifying targets in Gaza (18 Apr. 2013). TRNN reports the Interior Ministry spokesperson as saying that "security officers are working around the clock to counter the Zionist espionage measures" and the ministry is conducting "awareness campaigns" (11 Mar. 2013).

TRNN reports that, according to the spokesperson of Gaza's Interior Ministry, "[c]ollaborators are treated according to Palestinian law. They are referred to military courts ... and they can appeal. Sometimes death sentence verdicts are reconsidered and instead receive prison sentences" (11 Mar. 2013). Sources indicate that military courts give death sentences to collaborators (TRNN 11 Mar. 2013; Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013). On 11 April 2013, Human Rights Watch reported that, according to the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), the Palestinian national human rights institution (ICHR n.d.), since 2007, military courts have sentenced 13 alleged collaborators to death. On 13 March 2013, the Guardian reported that "Hamas has issued more than 30 death sentences to suspected spies" since 2007. On 12 June 2013, the MNA reported that, according to a security official, the "Hamas-run government in Gaza plans to execute a number of collaborators with Israel in an attempt to 'eradicate' collaboration this year." Sources report on alleged collaborators being sentenced to death in 2013 (MNA 12 June 2013; ICHR 25 June 2013; Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013), and sources also report on the implementation of death sentences for collaborators in 2013 (ibid.; The Palestine Chronicle 22 June 2013). Sources indicate that death sentences must be ratified by the president of the Palestinian Authority, however, the Palestinian Authority is not recognized by Hamas (TRNN 11 Mar. 2013; BBC 26 July 2011; MNA 12 June 2013). The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 states that Hamas did not contact the Palestinian Authority regarding at least seven executions that took place in 2012 (US 19 Apr. 2013, 32).

Sources report on the use of torture against alleged collaborators in detention (ibid., 36; Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013). Human Rights Watch says that military courts have convicted alleged collaborators based on "coerced confessions" (ibid.). TRNN reports that, according to a representative from Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, "most" alleged collaborators do not have access to "basic rights" and are subject to "inhumane interrogation" (11 Mar. 2013). The MNA indicates that, in both the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian authorities have used "illegal interrogation techniques" on suspected collaborators (18 Oct. 2010). Sources report on detained suspected collaborators being denied access to legal representation (Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013; TRNN 11 Mar. 2013). The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said that, although many spies were caught "red-handed" with high-tech equipment, the "vast majority were convicted without solid evidence" (ibid.).

Sources report that Hamas set up an amnesty program for collaborators (Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013; Gaza 12 Mar. 2013). On 12 March 2013, the website of the Interior Ministry announced the "National Campaign Against Collaborating with the Enemy" and stated that collaborators who come forward before 11 April 2013 can "repent and return to [their] people and family; and we will keep and protect [them]" (ibid.). MNA reports that, according to the Internal Security Service of the Interior Ministry, collaborators that come forward before 11 April 2013 would not be detained or sent to interrogation centres, and monthly salaries would be sent to their families (14 Mar 2013). According to TRNN, rights observers say that "it is difficult to know if the amnesty and rehabilitation programs violate international humanitarian law, since it is unclear whether the participants are being detained against their will" (11 Mar. 2013). The MNA explains that the collaborators who turned themselves in during the month-long amnesty are "enjoying the guarantees promised at the start of the campaign" but also said that "a number of collaborators were detained during the crackdown" (14 May 2013). The MNA also reports that, according to the Director of Internal Security at the Interior Ministry, "the anti-collaboration campaign, which ran from March 12 to May 12 ... resulted in a number of arrests" and legal procedures are "ongoing" (12 June 2013). On 11 April 2013, the Interior Ministry website indicated they had a list of collaborators to be arrested, and tunnels and borders were being monitored to make sure that collaborators did not flee (Gaza 11 Apr. 2013). The Times of Israel says that, one week after the end of the amnesty campaign, the Interior Ministry reported on "the arrest of 'many collaborators,' and vowed to 'pursue and execute' suspected spies who had not turned themselves in" (18 Apr. 2013).

According to the New York Times, since 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza through elections, Fatah members "have almost universally been under suspicion" (2 Dec. 2012). In September 2012, Human Rights Watch reported that detainees suspected of collaborating with the Palestinian Authority alleged that they were abused (2, 3).

3.3 Extrajudicial Killings of Collaborators in Gaza

Sources report on the extrajudicial killings of suspected collaborators in Gaza (US 19 Apr. 2013, 32; Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013). Human Rights Watch explains that during "hostilities with Israel in 2008 and 2009, gunmen and members of the security services in Gaza extrajudicially executed at least 32 people, including alleged collaborators" (ibid.).

Sources indicate that six or seven suspected collaborators were killed in November 2012 (ibid.; MNA 14 Mar. 2013). The suspected collaborators were allegedly in prison before they were killed (Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013; ICHR 2012, 14). Human Rights Watch reports that one of the men killed was still on trial when he was killed, while the others were in the process of appealing their conviction (11 Apr. 2013). Sources indicate that the corpses of some [or one (MNA 14 Mar. 2013; The New York Times 2 Dec. 2012)] of the men were tied to motorcycles and dragged through the streets (Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013; TRNN 11 Mar. 2013). Some sources state that the Qassam Brigades [also Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades], Hamas' military wing, claimed responsibility for the death of six of the collaborators (Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013; US 19 Apr. 2013, 32), while other sources say that the military wing killed seven men (The New York Times 2 Dec. 2012). The ICHR stated that the killings were conducted by "unknown armed persons" (2012, 14). TRNN reports that, according to the Interior Ministry in Gaza, the perpetrators of the seven killings in November 2012 were punished (11 Mar. 2013). However, human rights organizations state that, to their knowledge, Hamas has not investigated the killings of the seven Palestinian prisoners accused of collaborating with Israel (Human Rights Watch 11 Apr. 2013; AI 2013; ICHR 2012, 14). According to Human Rights Watch, because the seven men were being held in detention before their death, "prison officials failed to protect them from the killers or, worse, handed them over" (11 Apr. 2013).

4. Treatment by Militant Groups

In June 2011, sources reported that the Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's armed wing, arrested a collaborator allegedly involved in the assassination of 16 Palestinians (MNA 11 June 2011; Ynet 10 June 2011). MNA also said that, according to the Al-Quds Brigades, "the collaborator was identified after several months of intensive monitoring and interrogations by the group's security department" (11 June 2011). MNA added that the collaborator was handed over to the Hamas Interior Ministry in Gaza to be brought to trial (11 June 2011).

5. Living in Israel

The Guardian reports that, according to a 2010 report by the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, approximately "6,000 Palestinian collaborators and their families have moved to Israel but [have] not been given adequate protection or proper status, and have essentially been abandoned by the security establishment to which they passed information" (17 May 2011). According to an interview with the Jerusalem Post, the author of the 2010 report stated that the collaborators are not allowed to work, cannot receive health benefits, and must renew their permit every three month never knowing if they will be returned (4 Aug. 2010). The Jerusalem Post also notes that, according to the report, Palestinian collaborators in Israel do not have "basic human rights, financial assistance or adequate social benefits" (4 Aug. 2010). Similarly, according to the Director of the Department for Migrants, Refugees and Undocumented People at Physicians for Human Rights Israel,

"they are treated with contempt both by Israeli society, which sees them as still belonging to the Palestinian enemy side, and by the Israeli establishment, which does its best to avoid recognizing responsibility for them, denies them residency status and basic social rights, and makes their lives miserable with endless bureaucracy and committees. Often, security agencies deny any relation to the collaborators and the burden of proof falls on them to demonstrate that they had indeed collaborated with Israel, in order to gain the most minimal protection and the right to reside in Israel." (JNews 27 Aug. 2010)

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Abdel Jawwad, Saleh. N.d. "The Classification and Recruitment of Collaborators." [Accessed 16 July 2013]

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. N.d. "Mission Statement." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

Amnesty International (AI). 2013. "Palestinian Authority." Amnesty International Report 2013: The State of the World's Human Rights. [Accessed 25 July 2013]

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 11 April 2013. "Hamas Failed to Probe Palestinian 'Collaborator' Deaths." [Accessed 25 July 2013]

_____. 26 July 2011. "Hamas Executes Palestinians Convicted of Collaboration." [Accessed 25 July 2013]

_____. 29 May 2010. Wyre Davies. "No Way Home for Palestinian Collaborators." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

B'Tselem. 1 January 2011. "Harm to Palestinians Suspected of Collaborating with Israel." [Accessed 25 July 2013]

_____. N.d. "About B'Tselem." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

Gaza. 11 April 2013. Interior Ministry. "Interior Ministry Arrests Collaborators During Next Hours." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. 12 March 2013. Interior Ministry. "Press Release Issued by Interior Ministry Regarding Launch of National Campaign Against Collaboration." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

The Guardian. 13 March 2013. "Hamas Promises Amnesty to Palestinian Collaborators Syping for Israel." [Accessed 25 July 2013]

_____. 28 December 2011. "Palestinians Hoping to Leave Gaza Strip Asked to Collaborate with Israel." [Accessed 25 July 2013]

_____. 17 May 2011. "Palestinian Collaborator: 'I Am a Traitor. I Sold my People, but for What?" [Accessed 16 July 2013]

_____. 27 April 2011. "Palestine Rivals Fatah and Hamas on Verge of Historic Deal." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

Human Rights Watch. 11 April 2013. "Gaza: 'Collaborator' Murders Go Unpunished." [Accessed 25 July 2013]

_____. September 2012. Abusive System: Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza. [Accessed 29 July 2013]

Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR). 25 June 2013. "The Independent Commission for Human Rights Condemns Execution of Two Citizens in the Gaza Strip." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. 2012. The Status of Human Rights in Palestine. Eighteenth Annual Report. [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

The Jerusalem Post. 4 August 2010. "Report Highlights Collaborators' Plight." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

_____. N.d. [Accessed 29 July 2013]

JNews. 27 August 2010. Ran Cohen. "The Tragedy of Palestinian Collaborators." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 30 July 2013]

Ma'an News Agency (MNA). 12 June 2013. "Gaza Govt Plans to Execute More Collaborators." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. 11 June 2011. "Al-Quds Brigades Arrest Suspected Collaborator." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. 14 May 2013. "Gaza Ministry: Collaborator Campaign A Success." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. 14 March 2013. "Hamas Urges Collaborators to Hand Themselves In." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. 18 October 2010. "Collaboration." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

_____. N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

The New York Times. 12 February 2013. "Hamas Chronology." [Accessed 30 July 2013]

_____. 2 December 2012. Jodi Rudoren. "Collaboration in Gaza Leads to Grisly Fate." [Accessed 25 July 2013]

_____. 21 October 2012. "Al Fatah." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

The Palestine Chronicle. 22 June 2013. "Hamas Government 'Executes Two Collaborators'." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

Philippines News Agency (PNA). 4 May 2013. "Palestinian Court Sentences Collaborator with Israel to Death." (Factiva)

The Real News Network (TRNN). 11 March 2013. "Hamas Offers Amnesty to Palestinian Collaborators Spying for Israel." [Accessed 16 July 2013]

_____. N.d. "Our Mission." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

RT News. 15 May 2013. "Hamas, Fatah Agree to Form Unity Government in Three Months." [Accessed 30 July 2013]

Times of Israel. 18 April 2013. "Grace Period Over, Hamas Vows to Hunt Down, Execute Collaborators." [Accessed 16 July 2013]

_____. N.d. "About The Times of Israel." [Accessed 29 July 2013]

United States (US). 19 April 2013. Department of State. "Israel and the Occupied Territories." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012. [Accessed 26 July 2013]

Washington Post. 15 May 2013. William Booth. "Palestinians Curb Israeli Reporters' Access to West Bank; Palestine to Restrict Israeli Reporters." (Factiva)

Ynet. 10 June 2011. "Islamic Jihad: Palestinian Collaborator with Israel Detained." [Accessed 26 July 2013]

Additional Sources Consulted

Internet sites, including: Al Haq; Al Jazeera; Council on Foreign Relations; ecoi.net; Factiva; Freedom House; United Nations - Refworld.