ABSTRACT
Since the outset of the Arab national activity in Palestine, Palestinians have been subjected to multiple systems of surveillance, imposed by the foreign rulers and by the Palestinian-Arab national movement. This chapter presents an historical overview of these surveillance systems, while emphasizing the following points: not only Palestinians have been subjected to surveillance; Zionists/Israelis have also been under surveillance, exercised by Palestinian, international and Zionist (internal security) agencies; thus, both Jewish and Arab communities in Palestine/Israel have been under double surveillance, internal and external; these surveillance systems have been applied much more intensely on Palestinians, due to the balance of power which favored the Zionists, and Palestinians were thus affected much more significantly; the goal of the in-group surveillance imposed by the Palestinians has been to consolidate the society behind the national movement, hence to change the power relations between them and the Israelis.
