Village Leagues Leader Denies Collaboration with Israel

Mustapha Dudein, a leader of the Israel-backed Village Leagues on the West Bank, has denied emphatically that he collaborates with the Israeli authorities, insisted that he wants Israel’s total withdrawal from the territory and said he considers himself a loyal subject of King Hussein of Jordan.

Dudein reportedly made those remarks during a private meeting over the weekend at the home of Zvi Elpeleg, a former Military Governor presently doing research on Middle Eastern affairs at the Shiloah Institute of Tel Aviv University.

Dudein, a former Minister of Labor in the Jordanian government and now head of the Village Leagues in the Hebron area, claimed that he negotiates with Israeli officials because of the need to develop Arab rural villages on the West Bank. He said that in the present situation this was the only way to ensure the welfare of the villagers because neither Jordan nor the Palestine Liberation Organization could provide similar assistance.

The Village Leagues were set up last year by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon as a counterforce to PLO influence on the West Bank. They are financed and protected by Israel. Members are trained in the use of arms and provided with them.

Many Village Leagues leaders have become targets of terrorist actions and one was ambushed and murdered several months ago along with his son. The Jordanian government announced recently that Village Leagues members would be tried for treason in absentia and would be subject to capital punishment if caught.

According to Dudein, there are five Village Leagues on the West Bank comprising about 100,000 Palestinians. But he said he is adamantly against the Israeli occupation. “We found out that we have no way to fight Minister Sharon,” he said, “but then if Minister Sharon asks me for sovereignty even on one meter of the West Bank, I will refuse him with all my might.”