Good Arabs

by Cohen, Hillel; Watzman, Haim

• ISBN13: 9780520269767
• ISBN10: 0520269764
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-29
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Based on his reading of top-secret files of the Israeli police and the prime minister's office, Hillel Cohen exposes the full extent of the crucial, and, until now, willfully hidden history of Palestinian collaboration with Israelis-and of the Arab resistance to it. Cohen's previous book, the highly acclaimedArmy of Shadows,told how this hidden history played out from 1917 to 1948, and now, inGood Arabshe focuses on the system of collaborators established by Israel in each and every Arab community after the 1948 war. Covering a broad spectrum of attitudes and behaviors, Cohen brings together the stories of activists, mukhtars, collaborators, teachers, and sheikhs, telling how Israeli security agencies penetrated Arab communities, how they obtained collaboration, how national activists fought them, and how deeply this activity influenced daily life. When this book was first published in Hebrew, it became a bestseller and has evoked bitter memories and intense discussions among Palestinians in Israel. It also prompted the reclassification of many of the hundreds of documents Cohen viewed to uncover this story, one that is central for understanding the development of Israel and one that continues to unfold to this day.

Author Biography

Hillel Cohen is Research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaborators with Zionism 1917-1948 (UC Press), The Present Absentees: Palestinian Refugees in Israel since 1948, and The Marketplace is Empty: The Rise and Fall of Arab Jerusalem 1967-2007.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Beginning a Beautiful Friendship: The Rise of the Collaborator Class	p. 11
Communists vs. the Military Government, Collaborators vs. Communists	p. 39
Boundary Breakers: Infiltrators, Smugglers, Spies	p. 65
The Land	p. 95
The Battle of the Narrative: Symbols, Pronouncements, Teachers	p. 123
Minorities within a Minority: Dilemmas of Identity	p. 159
Circles of Control, Circles of Resistance	p. 195
Conclusion	p. 231
Notes	p. 239
Bibliography	p. 265
Index	p. 269
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