What are the social and economic costs of using cohorts of local informers to ensure military control of a hostile territory? In 1994, an Israeli NGO (B’Tselem) published a study that analysed the incidents of Palestinians murdered by their own people on suspicions of collaboration with Israeli intelligence during the first Palestinian uprising (Intifada 1987-1993). It has been estimated that 900 Palestinians were executed on these grounds.
Twenty years later an astounding phenomenon was documented. Hundreds of Palestinians are turning to the Israeli High Court of Justice and asking to be formally recognized as ‘informers’ (collaborators). This trend raises the following question, how did such a scorned tag become a highly desired title that many Palestinians are willing to petition the highest court of the enemy to officially gain the label of informer (collaborator)?
The findings of this research reveal an interesting juxtaposition: a Jewish population being encouraged to settle in the West Bank, while simultaneously a constant flow of informers and their extended families are being resettled within Israel (also funded by the state of Israel)’ thus, creating a completely different political and demographic reality than the one that existed just a generation ago.