ABSTRACT
In the West Bank the word for traitor, ameel is used liberally, most of the time as a synonym for a collaborator with the Israeli forces of occupation. In the West Bank and Gaza, three hundred and sixty Arabs have been killed by their own people for 'collaboration with the Israeli authorities' and the cars, houses and places of business of several thousand more have been damaged or torched. If a traitor in the West Bank is someone who, in order to live from day to day, cooperates with the Israeli authorities, then everybody in the place is a traitor. But N. O. refutes the accusation of treason by stating that he has been undertaking similar work for the Israelis since 1967 and that nobody has objected to it until recently. N. O. angrily states that nothing has changed and that some of his accusers have done similar work for the Israelis in the past.
