10* THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE iarly efficient section of the Israeli army. After a certain amount of scandal the officer in charge of the operation was brought to trial, found guilty, and then punished with a fine of one piaster (less than one cent). Since occupying the West Bank and G aza in 1967, Israel has acquired approximately a million more A ra b subjects. Its record has been no better, but this has not been surprising,** Indeed, the best introduction to what has been taking place in the Occupied Territories is the testimony of Israeli Arabs who suffered through Israeli legal brutality before 1967. See, for instance, Sabri Jiryis’ The Arabs in Israel or Fouzi al-Asmar’s To Be an Arab in Israel or Elia T. Z u r a y k ’s The Palestinians in Israel: A Study in Internal Colonialism. Israel's political goal has been to keep the Arabs pacified, never capable of preventing their continued domination by Israel. Whenever a nationalist leader gains a little stature, he is cither deported, imprisoned (without trial), or he disappears; Arab houses (approximately 17,000) are blown up by the army to make examples of nationalist offenders; censorship on everything written by or about Arabs prevails; every Arab is directly subject to military regulations. In order to disguise repression and to keep it from disturbing the tranquility of Israeli consciousness, a corps of Arab experts— Israeli Jews who understand the A ra b "mentality’'— has grown up. One of them, Amnon Lin, wrote in 1968 that “ the people trusted us and gave us a freedom of action that has not been enjoyed by any other group in the country, in any field." Consequently, Over time we have attained a unique position in the state as experts, and no one dares to challenge our opinions or our actions. We are represented in every depan ment of govern­ ment, in the Histadrut and in the political parties; every department and office has its "Arabists” who alone act for their minister among the Arabs.i0 This quasi government interprets, and rules the Arabs behind a facade of privileged expertise. When, as I noted in Chapter One, visiting liberals wish to find out about “ the Arabs,” they