Hamas vows to punish collaborators with Israel as remorse ultimatum is over

English.news.cn 2010-07-11 01:30:13
by Emad Drimly, Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Gaza Strip ruling Islamic Hamas movement vowed to harshly punish Palestinians accused for being collaborators with Israel after the two-month ultimatum period Hamas authorities had given for collaborators to remorse was over on Saturday.

The interior ministry of deposed Hamas government announced on May 8 that it gave a last chance for the Palestinians collaborating with the Israeli security intelligence to give themselves up to the Hamas security forces and remorse until July 10.

The ministry called the campaign "the national campaign to fight collaboration with Israel."

Over the past two months, Hamas has carried out a campaign of public awareness and explained the dangers of collaborating with Israel via local radio, television stations and internet.

Security sources in the Hamas interior ministry said that the campaign "has achieved a great success in the fields of public awareness and fighting the phenomena of collaborating with Israel. "

The sources said that many collaborators responded to the campaign and handed themselves up.

"Around 15 collaborators came to the security headquarters all over the Gaza Strip and expressed readiness to remorse and quit collaboration with Israel," said the sources, adding "after they were questioned for several hours, they were released and sent to their homes."

Palestinian observers said that despite the highly sophisticated technology and intelligence data adopted by Israel to carry out assassinations against Palestinian activists, Israel also deploys human beings to help obtain the needed information.

Hamas said the Israeli Shabak (internal security intelligence) has been working on recruiting dozens of Palestinian youngsters and luring them to work as collaborators, adding the Israeli security recruit them by various means.

"The Israeli intelligence security focuses on the social and economic needs of the Palestinians and takes advantage of the hard living circumstances of the population to pressure on certain individuals, mainly young people, who easily become collaborators, " said the interior ministry sources.

The campaign against collaboration with Israel also included publishing advertisement in main streets, roads and public squares as well as at mosques, which urged the collaborators to remorse and hand themselves up, promising that "it will be kept as a top secret to protect the honor of the collaborators' clans."

Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesman of the Hamas interior ministry, told Xinhua that the campaign focused mainly on developing the public awareness as a preparation to fight against the phenomena, adding that the campaign aimed at forming a Palestinian public opinion against collaboration.

"The campaign has evolved from treating the phenomena and suing those collaborating with the Israeli occupation to educating the people and explaining to them how dangerous it is to be a collaborator," said al-Ghussein.

Meanwhile, Hisham al-Mghari said that the Palestinian society " is able to plan and hold campaigns to get rid of collaboration with Israel and its security apparatuses."

He added that in the Palestinian territories, collaborators are individuals, but in other countries, collaborators usually represent clans and tribes.

"The Israeli intelligence security is taking advantage of the religious and national affiliation, lower education, in addition to the lower living standard and poverty to recruit Palestinians for collaboration," said al-Mghari.

Israeli sources revealed that several armed Palestinian groups managed to unveil a number of Palestinian collaborators with Israel, many of whom were executed, mainly during the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip that last for three weeks in early 2009.

On April 15, the deposed government of Hamas executed two Palestinians convicted for being collaborators with Israel, which was the first ever execution Hamas carried out since it seized control of the Gaza Strip by force in the summer of 2007.

The execution of the two collaborators, which had outraged the Palestinian rights groups, was carried out without getting the approval of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. According to the Palestinian law, the government should get the approval of the president before it executes any criminal.