Hebron Jewish community says "illegal move" meant to bolster Abbas "puts terrorists in uniform."
By TOVAH LAZAROFF, APPA officers hebron 224.88(photo credit: )
Nearly 600 Palestinian Authority police officers were deployed Saturday in the sections of Hebron under PA control.
The deployment, which was coordinated with the IDF, enraged the 1,000 settlers living in the city.
This "illegal move," which put "terrorists in uniform," was one more symptom of a "corrupt and failed government" that was about to fall apart, Hebron Jewish community spokeswoman Orit Struck said.
Hebron, a former Hamas stronghold, is the third West Bank city to be reinforced with forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas recently.
The move, authorized by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, reflects the growing cooperation between Israel and the PA in the effort to block a Hamas takeover of the West Bank.
The IDF said in a statement that the Palestinian operation was a temporary measure to help combat Hamas and maintain public order, and did not constitute a transfer of overall security responsibility in Hebron from Israeli to PA forces.
The Palestinian forces will not patrol the Israeli-controlled sector.
The PA policemen arrived before dawn on Shabbat, a time apparently chosen to prevent protests by Hebron's Jewish residents, who live in several heavily fortified enclaves in the city's downtown area.
The new contingent of 585 officers, some trained in Jordan under US guidance, drove into Hebron in jeeps, vans and buses and assembled at the city's security headquarters. By midmorning, they began patrolling the streets.
The deployment came as no surprise to Struck, who along with residents of nearby settlements had been lobbying to prevent the move.
The deployment was "dangerous" and "scary," Struck said on Saturday night.
Strengthening the Palestinian forces in Hebron would only lead to more terrorist attacks, she warned, and those who made this decision would bear the responsibility for those deaths. Now that the force had arrived, she said, there was little the community could do but to wait for the next attack on Jews.
Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said that he, too, thought it would be hard to undo the deployment.
The council planned to discuss the matter when it met on Sunday, Dayan said.
Last week, MK Gilad Erdan (Likud) toured Hebron and called on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to hold an urgent debate on the deployment.
During his visit, he was shown how vulnerable the Jewish community is to attack from some of the hilltop areas in the city that overlook the Jewish enclaves there.
Several hundred PA police officers were already stationed in the portions of Hebron under Palestinian control before the arrival of the reinforcements.
Hebron's PA security chief, Samih Seifi, said he was determined to impose order. "We will arrest whoever tries to stop us, and we will not let anyone deter us," Seifi said.
In recent months, Abbas has been trying to take over more of the West Bank, though Israel retains overall security control. Abbas's forces had previously been allowed to deploy in Nablus and Jenin, targeting local thugs, criminals and Hamas supporters.
Since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Abbas has closed Hamas-linked organizations and arrested hundreds of supporters in the West Bank to prevent the Islamist group from taking over the area.
Hamas accused Abbas of collaborating with Israel.
"This [the deployment] comes as a reward by the occupation forces after what they have done against Hamas, their nonstop efforts to eliminate Hamas," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman.
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