Summary
Idarat al-Mabahith al-‘Amma (General Investigations or Criminal Investigations Department), part of the Egyptian Administration’s Interior and Public Security Administration in Gaza, whose files compiled reports on public and private life as a database for controlling behaviour and attitudes (Governing Gaza, PDF p.63-64 / printed p.46-47).
Details
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Its files include incident reports, daily and weekly reports by police officers to department inspectors, and monthly reports by regional governors and inspectors to the head of the Interior and Public Security Administration (PDF p.63-64).
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All public meetings were attended by an officer of the mabahith, private gatherings were noted and observed, family conflicts and their mediation by mukhtars were detailed, and reports covered public opinion and prevailing rumours without, for the most part, analysing them or distinguishing fact from fiction (PDF p.64).
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Feldman gives as an example a report describing in detail several people who drove to Khan Yunis and stopped at a school for several hours, with the teachers’ belief that they were there for a meeting, subject unspecified; such reports were effective by compilation, building profiles that could be drawn on later (PDF p.64).
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Police files in the Egyptian Administration, unlike personnel files, followed a principle of including everything, rooted in security concerns including Gazan action provoking an Israeli attack on Egypt and protest driven by despair and disillusionment (PDF p.62-63).
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Feldman records civil servants distinguishing their service from collaboration except for public security work: in Qasim Jamal’s words, if a man “had to enter into matters which were considered against the nation. Then it would be said, ‘This man is political, he’s from the mabahith [cid].’ And people talked against him. But, this didn’t happen a lot” (PDF p.101 / printed p.84).