eliminate Intifada activists, using disguise and surprise as their chief
weapons. Originally there were two such units—Shimson in the Gaza
Strip and Duvdevan in the West Bank—which were established at the
time of the first Intifada in the late 1980s in order to neutralize the
Palestinian uprising. Shimson was later disbanded and its members
became part of the newly created Egoz Unit, along with others from
another highly elite trained unit, Shayetet 13 (Naval Commando).
In addition to providing intelligence to the General Staff of the Is-
rael Defense Forces (IDF), the Mista’aravim soldiers are assigned to
carrying out counterterrorist and hostage rescue missions in the Oc-
cupied Territories. They can move around more effectively than IDF
soldiers in regular uniform and operate without attracting attention.
The unit’s members are trained to act and think like Arabs by taking
an extensive course on how to blend in with the Arab population in
terms of customs, dress, language, and makeup techniques to change
appearances.
The normal training regimen for standard infantry troops is reduced
to two or three weeks for Mista’aravim soldiers. They also receive a
different kind of training, spending more time on unarmed combat than
the norm. This is due to the nature of their operations, whereby gunfire
can cause more injury to innocent civilians than to enemy operatives in
highly crowded areas. They are armed with small weapons, such as
micro-Uzis, which are easily concealed and carried. Short-barreled M-
16s and sniper rifles are carried when firepower is more crucial than
the ability to conceal the weapon. Because the Mista’aravim members
operate mainly in small groups in crowded cities, they are proficient at
close-quarter combat and have been trained to hit targets while running
through obstacles. Due to the ever-changing pattern of streets and
buildings in their area of operations, they also focus on real-time drone
and satellite photo navigation.
Although the modern Mista’aravim units originated at the start of
the Intifada, the history of such units predates the establishment of the
State of Israel. In May 1943 the Palmah, the Israeli underground de-
fense network, set up the Arab Platoon, also known by its code name
Shahar. Founded by Yitzhad Sadeh, it was a small and initially ama-
teurish unit, which nevertheless spearheaded the Yishuv’s (the pre-
state Jewish settlement in Palestine) military intelligence gathering
until the summer of 1948. In the mid-1940s the Arab Platoon operated186 • MISTA’ARAVIM06-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:25 AM Page 186