In 2020, when he landed in the Israeli Civil Administration, the arm of the army that manages the day-to-day affairs of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Nadav King quickly understood that to be a good officer, he needed a Bnei Siakh. In Hebrew, this term means “interlocutor”. “A euphemism that actually refers to employees” Palestinians, says the 24-year-old Israeli who left the army in 2021.
Stationed in Bethlehem, in the center of the West Bank, one of his main prerogatives then consisted in distributing permits for Israel, outside official channels, to these collaborators and their relatives, in exchange for their loyalty. “This is one of the practices that most illustrates the corruption of the civil administration, he says. What should be the basic right of every person [circuler librement] becomes the privilege of a few. »
His testimony, as well as those of more than fifty former soldiers assigned to Cogat (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories), the army body on which the civil administration depends, were published by the NGO of Israeli veterans Breaking the Silence in a new report entitled “Military Regime”, released on Monday 1is august.
It offers unprecedented insight into the bureaucracy of the Israeli occupation and its arbitrary practices, including the use of Bnei Siakh. The latter are recruited among local notables: mayors or community leaders, religious dignitaries, security officials or even businessmen who have interests with Israel. In and around Bethlehem, the Israelis are also targeting Christians who are “seen by the military as Westerners to whom one can speak, note Nadav King. They bring a lot of money back to the city”.
A “key role in the Israeli occupation”
Relations with these collaborators are close: when Nadav King was in office, two or three of them came every day to seek services, directly in the offices of the civil administration. The soldiers “sometimes went to their homes, invited for the knafeh”famous Middle Eastern dessert with cheese and angel hair, describes the young Israeli.
On his sofa, in the heights of Haifa, a city in northern Israel, Nadav King scrolls through a conversation on WhatsApp with his superior at the time, archived on his personal phone. Almost every day, he received a new request. Suddenly, the mayor of a neighboring Israeli settlement asks for permits for a dozen of his proteges, so that they can go and pray in Jerusalem; another day, he’s a mayor which requires the lifting of the movement restrictions imposed on his daughter… All this outside of any official procedure, in opacity.
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