Israel is prepared to agree to the establishment of a 15,000-member Palestinian police force.
Police Minister Moshe Shahal announced Israel’s agreement to the size of the newly established Palestinian police force, whose total size is nearly half of some earlier figures put forward in the past few months by Palestinian leaders.
The Jewish settlers, meanwhile, have pledged a campaign of resistance to a Palestinian police force, saying they will not honor even parking tickets issued by Palestinians.
The size of the Palestinian police force, along with the related issue of Israeli security in the territories, is among the issues being discussed at the negotiations for implementing the historic self-rule agreement Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed in Washington on Sept. 13.
The negotiations are scheduled to enter their seventh round in Cairo this week.
According to the agreement’s timetable, Israel is scheduled to begin withdrawing its security forces from the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho on Dec. 13.
In keeping with that schedule, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has instructed about 8,000 PLO army members currently stationed in Jordan and Egypt to be prepared to police Gaza and Jericho beginning next month.
Shahal said the negotiators had agreed to retain Israel’s border police in the Gaza Strip and Jericho to patrol roads leading to Israeli settlements.
But the precise police role for maintaining security remains to be worked out, he said.
Shahal noted that Israel would not object to the use of light armored vehicles, revolvers and automatic weapons by a Palestinian police force.
The Palestinians have also demanded that their police be allowed to use power boats and helicopters.
Shahal added that Israeli settlers, who are routinely armed, would be required to obtain a license to carry weapons once the Palestinians begin to take over authority in the Gaza and Jericho.
But Shahal’s statement conflicted with a comment from the chief Palestinian negotiator, Nabil Sha’ath, who stated last week that settlers would have “absolutely no right” to carry weapons outside their settlements.
Over the weekend, leaders of the settlers’ movement announced plans to fight the accord with the PLO.
They said they would harass government officials and defy the authority of the Palestinian police.
‘NOBODY IN THIS COUNTRY CAN STOP US’
“Our government has acquiesced to allowing the who’s who of the world’s most-wanted terrorists to become policemen,” one settler told Israel Television.
“It is particularly important that during this interim period we remain with the ability to defend ourselves,” he said.
“We have the right of demonstration,” said Ron Nahman, who is mayor of Ariel and a member of the Knesset from the Likud party.
“Nobody in this country can stop us, exactly as it was in the United States, when the Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam War,” Nahman said.
Demonstrators protesting the self-rule accord confronted Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the airport Sunday upon his return from a 10-day trip to the United States and Canada, where he met with government and Jewish leaders.
Rabin told reporters at the airport that the Israeli government would stand firm on four principles during the negotiations with the PLO for implementing self-rule.
He said that all Israeli settlements will remain in place and that Israelis will bear the responsibility for the security of Israelis, both inside and outside the settlements.
Shahal also said that Israel will be responsible for the security of its borders; and that Israel is attempting to create conditions that will help the Palestinian police maintain law and order and prevent terrorism in the autonomous areas.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
