Triangle of Betrayal: Collaborators and Transitional Justice in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Abstract

This article addresses the phenomenon of collaboration and societal reaction to it in the Israeli-Palestinian context. The authors identify a "triangle of betrayal": the Palestinian collaborators' betrayal of their communities; the betrayal of the communities who often use the label of collaboration as a pretext for abuses; and the betrayal of the Israeli government who often receives services from the collaborators and later abandons them to their fate. A transitional justice framework is proposed as a potential means to respond to this complex legacy.Betrayal is the only truth that sticks (Arthur Miller, After the Fall)The Israeli "disengagement" from Gaza is far from a full end-of-conflict initiative, yet it can be seen as a "simulation" of limited peace, as an exercise-or improvised dress rehearsalin what an end, or a substantial transformation, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may look like. When the fog of violence clears, the actors are exposed in their predicted roles: Jewish colonial settlers reluctantly pulled from their houses back to Israel, Israeli soldiers withdraw to new lines, Palestinians who suffered under these soldiers and settlers would be able to enjoy a slightly higher level of freedom, and civilians inside Israel fear rocket attacks from liberated Gaza. Dilemmas and concerns abound-the fate of the houses left behind, security arrangements, control of borders. Yet in the hundreds of journalistic pieces, think-tanks' position papers and legal analyses, few have paid attention to an awkward actor, which does not fit clearly in our predicted categories-Palestinian collaborators.

Community Engagement for Counterterrorism in Britain: An Exploration of the Role of “Connectors” in CounteringTakfiri JihadistTerrorism

“…In Israel, Dudai and Cohen suggest that the systematic use of informers for countering terrorism creates a "culture of suspicion" among Palestinians, which hampers the impact of the work of Palestinians who oppose violence. 53 Counterterrorism structures, operational activities and mentalities are difficult to dismantle, and indeed cannot be removed if there continues to be a terrorist threat. 54 It seems that legitimacy and co-operation are fundamental, without which community support for violence may increase.…”

Judicial Framing and Immigration Policymaking: Israel's Policy toward Self-Claiming Palestinian Informers

“…Beginning in the mid-1990s, only a few human-rights reports sought to draw public attention to the lives of Palestinian collaborators in Israel or their fate in their own communities (e.g., Amnesty International 2015; Be’er and Abdul Jawwad 1994; Human Rights Watch 2001). The literature on Palestinian collaborators is also still in its infancy and mostly includes autobiographies of former Palestinian collaborators (e.g., Elon 2019; Hassan and Becket 2022; Hassan Yousef 2010), memoirs of former intelligence officers describing their operational connections with Arab collaborators (e.g., Moreh 2014, 64–77; Nimrodi 2003, 92–139; Perry 1999), sociological studies (e.g., Haj-Yahia, Kaufman and Abu-Nijaila 1999), legal and human-rights studies (e.g., Dudai and Cohen 2007; Hofnung 2019; Hofnung and Hadad forthcoming; Livnat 2018; Teplow 2019); and historical-political studies (e.g., Hofnung 2017). What is missing from this list are studies that examine Israel's immigration policy toward self-claiming Palestinian informers from a legal discursive approach that considers the power embedded within legal discourse for social and political practices (Tessuto et al 2016).…”

Latent Judicial Intervention: The Case of Self-Claiming Palestinian Informers

“…Academic research on Palestinian collaborators is also still in its infancy. The existing literature on this sensitive subject comes from various perspectives, including autobiographies of former Palestinian collaborators (e.g., Yousef 2010; Elon 2019); memoirs of former intelligence officers describing their operational connections with Arab collaborators (e.g., Peri 1999;Nimrodi 2003, 92-139); other accounts from legal and human rights perspectives (e.g., Haj-Yahia, Kaufman, and Abu Nijaila 1999; Cohen and Dudai 2005;Dudai and Cohen 2007;Levenkron 2012;Livnat 2018;Teplow 2019); historical and political studies (e.g., Hofnung 2017); and judicial policymaking (e.g., Hofnung 2019;Hadad and Hofnung 2023). However, it is more difficult to find studies that examine Israel's policy vis-à-vis SCIs that reflect their actual relocation into Israel over the last decades.…”