Extortion, blackmail and exploitation in Palestine

Extortion and blackmail are systematic Israeli procedures in Palestine. Extortion, defined as coercion into giving up certain things (be it property or information) against one’s free will, has been around for decades. These policies however intensified in 2007 after the Palestinian political split. A Palestinian film, “Omar”, which was nominated for an Oscar for the best foreign language film in 2014, portrayed some aspects of these practices.

There have been countless testimonies and reports concerning this issue over the past decade, documented meticulously by human rights NGOs such as Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, B’Tselem and the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights. Israeli soldiers and the General Security Service (GSS) usually target the most vulnerable members of society and manipulate them. The most exploited groups are:

1. The marginalised and underprivileged. These are the weakest in every society and include, for example, political and social outcasts or people in financial distress, orphans and homosexuals.
2. People who depend on Israel for services. These are prisoners, detainees, students and people in need of medical care.

According to reports, collaborators are often asked to provide information that may seem harmless, such as reporting on the types of clothes that are hanging outside specific houses. Vital clues like this can assist an Israeli targeted assassination by indicating whether the target is staying in a given household. Others have been asked to transfer money and distribute it as payment to other collaborators.

Damned if you don’t

Once targeted for collaboration, Palestinians are interrogated, tortured and subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment. They have to spy on their friends, neighbours or families, or else have their secrets exposed or be denied a service they depend on. They have no choice and, whichever way they choose, they suffer psychologically, socially and often even physically.

There are a number of strategies used by the Israelis. For example, people are drawn into collaboration whilst in detention. Any reason is good enough to arrest someone or detain them for interrogation. Detainees are exposed to numerous strategies to extract information, including threats of violence, harsh prison conditions and spies who try to befriend you in prison. Refusing to collaborate could mean life in prison, even if there is no evidence against you. Addameer, a prisoner support and human rights NGO, reports that there are 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners, 500 of whom are under illegal administrative detention and 182 are children. After release from detention they are often assumed to have collaborated and lose the trust of their own community, which could actually drive them to collaborate if they have not done so already.

People are also forced to collaborate in the face of threats to expose secrets. If you are gay or engaged in extramarital or premarital sex, then it will be used against you. In some instances, the suggestion of these claims might be enough to destroy your life and relationship with your spouse and family, regardless of the truth of the claims made.

Palestinians are often forced to collaborate if they want to travel within or get out of Israel. Given that there are hundreds of checkpoints, separating villages, towns and cities, this could happen to anyone. According to B’Tselem and UN-OCHA there are 99 fixed checkpoints (2014), 256 flying checkpoints (2013) and 532 physical obstructions (2012). This is often used to get people to collaborate, particularly if they need to travel in order to study.

Applications for travel permits are examined by different departments within the Civil Administration, and GSS, According to PHR-Israel and B’Tselem, the GSS has the right of veto and more or less has the final say on the matter. Palestinian students in the West Bank, who are also reliant on Israeli permits to pursue their right to education, have reported that although they were in possession of the necessary entry permits, Israel revoked the permit after they refused to collaborate with GSS.

Collaboration is also enforced by threats of physical harm or death. In cases where the target is a patient who has applied for a permit to enter Israel for medical treatment (the majority of cases in Gaza), he or she faces the risk of the application being rejected which could have detrimental effects on their health and even lead to death.

As the occupying power, Israel is obliged to provide health services and ensure the right to health of the occupied population. As a minimal standard, Israel is prohibited from denying access to health services. Israeli exploitation of Palestinians’ medical distress and other needs constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Damned if you do

If Palestinians do break under pressure and collaborate, a long process of exploitation begins. They might start cooperating in order to stop the Israeli authorities from bothering them, but the more they collaborate, the more the officials own them. There have been cases where collaborators who wanted out were threatened to be exposed by Israel, or had their family members threatened.

For Palestinians, collaborators are enemies. They are perceived as traitors who are not to be trusted, since they might have facilitated Israeli assassinations and operations against their own people, family and friends. If they are exposed and caught they could be executed by the Palestinian authorities.

Many are eventually forced to detach themselves from their families, friends and surroundings and start a new life elsewhere. They are usually resettled in Israel, where they live in horrible conditions. They have no social networks and struggle to adapt. No matter how hard they try, they are rejected by Israeli society. Zionist ideology insists on creating a pure Jewish state; Arabs are resisted and face numerous forms of discrimination. For the Israeli government, they are no more than tools, only good as long as they are functioning well.

Positions of Palestinians and moving forward

Just like resistance, collaboration is also a by-product of oppression. In order to be immune to such divide-and-rule techniques, which aim to destroy the social fabric and unity of the Palestinian people, the latter must be united with a clear national strategy towards liberation and full realisation of their right to self-determination.

Executing collaborators will not eradicate the phenomenon; instead, Palestinians need to fight the source and make sure that Israel is held to account for its illegal and inhumane practices. “Omar”, directed by Hani Abu Asa’ad, sheds light on the important issue of extortion. It sends a powerfully humane message of unity, understanding and never raising arms in the face of your own people, including collaborators. All Palestinians suffer from the same source of oppression, and all are equally victims of Israeli policies. The fractured local political scene is fertile ground for planting more collaborators; the only way to counter this is through real unity and cooperation between all Palestinian social and political factions.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.