Among the tasks of the Musta'rabs is to infiltrate in civilian clothes and arrest Palestinian demonstrators (Associated Press)

Secret and private security units, known as the Musta'rabim, and called in Hebrew "Mist'arabim", affiliated with the Israeli occupation police. They are given many titles and epithets, including death squads. Their members are implanted with features resembling Arab features among the Palestinian protesters and demonstrators, where they wear their clothes and keffiyeh and speak in their tongue, and they quickly turn. Violence and arrests were directed against them on behalf of the Israeli forces.

Origins and establishment:


The Musta’rab units began to appear in the 1930s, when their members worked within Zionist gangs such as the Haganah, Etzel, and Lehi. These units are composed of soldiers selected with skin and features similar to Arab features, and they undergo training and training in a private institute. It is an industrial village that resembles a Palestinian village, to learn the details of Palestinian life and to study the history, language, and customs of the Arabs and Palestinians.

The first Arabized unit established by the Palmach organization was called the “Arab Circle,” and it worked in espionage and carrying out sabotage operations inside historic Palestine and neighboring countries. The unit’s work continued between 1943 and 1950.

This unit was established in 1943 by the head of the Syrian department in the Palmach organization, Yeruham Cohen, and it was composed of Jews descended from Eastern Jewish sects. The members of the Musta’rab units assumed false personalities and the characteristics of farmers, anthropological researchers, and students, and lived for long periods of time in valleys, villages, and even Arab countries.

However, there are no details about the establishment of the Musta’rab units, their organization, operations, and their victims, except for what was mentioned in some studies and in the book “The Musta’rabs, Israeli Death Squads” by its author, Ghassan Doar, who stated that a Musta’rab unit assassinated approximately 422 Palestinians during the period between 1988


and 2004.

The Palestinian resistance confronted the Musta'rabs and, in the strongest response, was able to kill General Eli Abram, the founder of one of those units, in a battle in the Jenin camp in August 1994.

Tasks and methods of work:


The Musta'rabists carry out the task of blowing up Palestinian demonstrations and dispersing them, or inciting young people to commit acts that provide justification for chasing them, arresting them, and imprisoning them, such as inciting them to throw stones at the occupation soldiers and cars. They also do this themselves to create tension in the atmosphere, which allows the Israeli occupation forces to attack, violently, and suppress the demonstrations with bloody methods. .

In October 2005, the Israeli army approved the planting of Musta'rabs among the Palestinian demonstrators against the apartheid wall in the western city of Ramallah, after Palestinians were able to expose Musta'rabs and expose them after inciting them to throw stones at the occupation soldiers, and others threw stones to create tension in the atmosphere and for the occupation soldiers to intervene.

It turned out that the exposed persons were carrying pistols and did not have Palestinian identity cards, so the occupation soldiers attacked the demonstrators to withdraw the Musta’rabs and protect them.

The Israeli newspaper "Maariv" revealed that, in order to arrest wanted persons by the occupation authorities, the undercover agents pose as journalists carrying a camera, paramedics, or doctors, because this makes it easier for them to infiltrate demonstrations and protests and carry out their security mission, even if it is necessary to wear women's clothing.

The Musta'ribin unit is also located among the Israeli occupation prisons. It is called "Masada" and is supervised by the Prison Service. Its mission is focused on controlling hostages held in prisons holding Palestinian prisoners and suppressing their protests.

One of the tasks of this unit is also to identify prisoners called “birds” among the Palestinian prisoners and detainees and establish relationships with them to obtain important information from them, which would convict them and justify their imprisonment and deprivation of their freedom.

The Musta'ribin units are assigned other tasks in addition to collecting information, such as eliminating resistance figures, as they assassinated dozens of leaders and activists in the Palestinian factions, whether in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the Islamic Jihad Movement, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), or other resistance factions.

An Israeli researcher in military affairs, Tal Zagraba, noted, after numerous interviews with Musta'rabs, that they live in a constant state of fear, whether before, during, or after carrying out what is required of them, which may reach the point of psychological trauma, which made many of them file lawsuits against the Israeli army to obtain... compensation.

Haaretz newspaper revealed that the occupation police had launched a new secret undercover unit among the Palestinians of the interior, or what is known as the 48 areas, to establish an intelligence infrastructure that would provide the occupation with information that would enable it to draw up a plan to deal with the Palestinians of the interior, especially in areas with an Arab majority, in the event of their protests, demonstrations, etc. 

Musta'rab units have multiplied, with names such as "Samson" around the Gaza Strip, "Dovdovan" in the West Bank, and "Yamam" affiliated with the Border Guard. Their missions vary, but they all serve the goals set by the Israeli occupation.

Confessions of Musta'rabs who worked in Israeli army units revealed that their leaders turned them into criminals, killing Palestinians in cold blood, and did not mention the number of their deaths, while the Musta'rabs within the "Masada" unit, which is described as "suicide bombers", suffered from the interruption of their human and social relationship with their closest relatives, such as their parents, so that they would not be exposed as infiltrators and implanters. Among Palestinians and Arabs.

The Israeli occupation forces the parents of the Musta'rab inside the Masada unit - which the occupation said it stopped recruiting within in the 1970s - to sign a pledge stating that they do not have the right to even ask about their son, who in turn signed a pledge that he gave his life to the State of Israel.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites