Hundreds of PA police arrive in Nablus to impose law and order - Haaretz

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Sat., January 05, 2008 Tevet 27, 5768

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		Palestinian police patrol in Jenin (AP)

Last update - 16:53 02/11/2007

Hundreds of PA police arrive in Nablus to impose law and order

By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: security

Hundreds of Palestinian security officers arrived in Nablus on Friday in a Western-backed crackdown on gunmen in the West Bank intended to impose order ahead of a peace conference with Israel. The police are expected to significantly establish their presence in the town by the afternoon hours.

Israel, which is seeking to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, approved the deployment in the flashpoint city. Government spokesman David Baker said the move would improve security. More Palestinian forces could be deployed elsewhere in the West Bank if the initiative worked well.

Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel-Razak Yahya told Reuters armed officers belonging to the Palestinian National Security Forces had entered Nablus and would deploy in the next few days, providing a major boost to the city's weak police force.

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"Hundreds of members of the Palestinian National Security Forces...arrived in Nablus to deploy for the first time to impose law and order," Yahya told Reuters by telephone.

At the Hawara checkpoint on the outskirts of the city Friday, Israel Defense Forces troops detained a knife-wielding Palestinian man.

The Nablus deployment was agreed upon following a meeting Thursday evening between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad. Both men reached an agreement in principle on the deployment roughly one and a half months ago.

The deployment was not carried out earlier, due to difficulties on the Palestinian side in organizing their forces. Israel has agreed to allow 500 police officers to deploy, although only 300 are actually expected to do so.

Nonetheless, Israel has made it clear that the Israel Defense Forces will continue to operate in the West Bank city when needed and will retain overall security responsibility in the Nablus area, while the police officers will focus on imposing law and order.

According to recent reports, United States Mideast security coordinator Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has said behind closed doors that the Palestinian security forces operating in the West Bank are not adequately prepared to accept security responsibility over Palestinian cities.

Barak told officials during his recent visit to the U.S. that Israel is interested in further easing restrictions on Palestinians, and to allow their security forces to operate in the West Bank.

In meetings with Israeli officials, Dayton praised Fayad for his efforts to rehabilitate the Palestinian security services. However Dayton, who prior to Hamas' rout of Fatah in the Gaza Strip expressed faith in the ability of the PA security forces, now has a much more pessimistic assessment of their capabilities.

Nonetheless, he believes the forces will be ready to assume security control following additional training in the next six months.

Israeli intelligence officials share Dayton's pessimistic assessment, telling the political leadership that the PA would be unable to exercise security control over West Bank cities in the near future.

Fayad himself said during the summer that his forces are not yet ready for the mission. Israel, however, is continuing to allow the PA to deploy police officers in West Bank cities in order to preserve public order, but not take responsibility for security matters.

The PA established a select force during the summer, which is currently awaiting deployment in Nablus. Once deployed, the force will immediately begin a sweeping operation to counter criminal activity in the city.

Israeli security sources say they believe the PA is concerned it will be unable to impose order in Nablus, due to expected clashes with armed gangs in the city. PA officials are also worried that IDF soldiers, who will continue counterterrorism operations, will also engage armed police officers.

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1.	Im one of the officers to be deployed in Nablus	23:48	\|	Ahmed	01/11/07

2.	Good luck, Ahmed!	00:45	\|	British Leftie	02/11/07

3.	#1 I only hope its true	00:48	\|	Yonni	02/11/07

4.	#1 Ahmed - Good Luck	01:26	\|	* BEN JABO	02/11/07

5.	Good Luck Ahmed	02:35	\|	Lance	02/11/07

6.	A DISASTER! HOW MANY THOUSANDS WERE MURDERED SINCE OSLO???))))	02:43	\|	VOICE of MOSHIACH)))	02/11/07

7.	Ben Jabo You Bet i am (End)	02:48	\|	Ahmed(PA Cop)	02/11/07

8.	Ahmed - Good luck and watch your back!!	03:11	\|	Dakkar	02/11/07

9.	Ahmed #1	03:22	\|	TonyL	02/11/07

10.	+1 to Ahmend - Best of luck securing your lands	04:16	\|	POP	02/11/07

11.	I don`t think the PA is doing this coz they`re READY..	05:08	\|	Johnboy	02/11/07

12.	Good upbeat message Ahmed	09:29	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	02/11/07

13.	Picture is worth a thousand words	12:56	\|	Max Zinger,P.Chimist	02/11/07

14.	Ahmed, I decide, not you	13:02	\|	Israeli soldier	02/11/07

15.	# 1 Ahmed	13:16	\|	Lynn	02/11/07

16.	# 11 Johnboy	13:28	\|	Lynn	02/11/07

17.	# 14 Schmuck!	13:30	\|	Lynn	02/11/07

18.	#14 = Tru Dat	14:04	\|	POP	02/11/07

19.	#14 Troublemaker	14:24	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	02/11/07

20.	300 "honest" men?	15:46	\|	B	02/11/07

21.	Salam and shalom to Ahmed	16:41	\|	maurice	02/11/07

22.	Johnboy #11	18:09	\|	TonyL	02/11/07

23.	#11-videogameboy displays fantasyland	19:27	\|	peter	02/11/07

24.	2nd TRY Israeli Soldier	01:56	\|	* BEN JABO	03/11/07

25.	No hope for any near-term peace	16:28	\|	Eli	03/11/07

26.	Ahmed is not Ahmed and Israeli soldier is not an Israeli soldier	16:59	\|	dovale	03/11/07

27.	Let them fight their own terrorists, and only when they clean	19:37	\|	Zvulun	03/11/07

28.	#16 Rather depends on who decides, Lynn	02:11	\|	Johnboy	05/11/07

29.	#22 Exactly right, TonyL	02:24	\|	Johnboy	05/11/07

30.	#27 Arrogant hubris, Zvulun	02:37	\|	Johnboy	05/11/07

31.	#14 israeli soldier	12:41	\|	danny	05/01/08

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