Shadow of Death.(Arab Israelis in danger in Palestine)

Until the moment the masked men burst into his shop last Sunday morning, Mamoun Freij must have believed the worst was behind him. For four years the Palestinian merchant had been exiled from his West Bank home in Tulkarm--forced to flee to Israel after being accused of collaboration with the Israeli Army during the first intifada. But last summer he came back home to run the family business after relatives and Palestinian officials assured him that enough time had passed to guarantee his safety. Those assurances proved empty. On April 8, Freij, 35, was eating breakfast behind the counter at his shop, The King of Coffee and Spices in Tulkarm's busy souk, when three gunmen burst through the front door and fired 15 shots into his body at point blank range, killing him instantly. "The killing of this spy is a message to all spies that we will punish them," said a leaflet left behind by Asfah Forces Unit 77, the military wing of Yasir Arafat's Fatah organization.

Freij was the latest victim of vigilante justice against suspected collaborators in Palestinian-controlled territories. But Freij was different from other targets. An Arab resident of Israel with a permit granting him freedom of movement across the Green Line dividing Israel from the West Bank, he was one of a handful of Palestinians who straddled both worlds. That made him highly privileged, but it also put him at risk. While no evidence exists that Freij was supplying information to Israeli intelligence services during the current intifada, his longtime links with Israel were apparently enough to seal his death sentence.

Freij wasn't an isolated case. The same week he was executed, another Arab Israeli who moved easily across the Green Line ran afoul of Palestinian gunmen. Yussif Samir, 63, a journalist for Israeli Broadcasting's Arabic service, was arrested in Bethelem by soldiers from Force 17, Yasir Arafat's elite presidential guard. Samir has been missing for two weeks, and Israeli intelligence officials believe he's being detained in a Bethlehem prison on suspicion of spying. As mistrust rises on both sides, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ratchets up Israel's response to the the intifada, Arab Israelis who traverse the Green Line find themselves at greater risk than ever before. Says Samir's daughter Haya, a well-known singer who was the first Arab Israeli to serve in Israel's military, "We belong to both worlds... Nowadays, that can be very dangerous."

Mamoun Freij's life and death attest to that. According to Tulkarm residents, Freij embarked on his deadly course more than a decade ago, during the first wave of protests against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. He and his two older brothers, Ghaleb and Khaled, allegedly struck a deal with the Israeli military, trading information for cash and other benefits. Locals say the brothers were often seen driving around town in Israeli vehicles, directing soldiers to the homes of militants. Meanwhile, their business flourished: the Freij family reportedly enjoyed sweetheart deals to import coffee and spices from Israel, and were made the sole distributors in town of a popular Israeli ice cream. "These were filthy people," says a top Palestinian official. Freij's sister, Dr. Yassin Obeida, denies that her brothers collaborated with Israel. An Israeli military spokesman, in keeping with official policy, won't confirm or deny it.

Either way, the Oslo Peace Accord was the brothers' undoing. After Israel troops withdrew from Tulkarm in 1995, the brothers were interrogated by agents of the newly created Palestinian Authority. Shortly afterward, they skipped town. Officials in Tulkarm say all three fled after warnings from ...