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PA to build 20 police stations in West Bank

Israelis approve reopening of stations in B areas controlled by Israel in bid to help Abbas enforce security plan. Palestinians training in Jericho to man stations

Israel and the Palestinians reached an agreement Friday to reopen 20 police stations in the West Bank in a bid to assist the Palestinian Authority in enforcing its security plan in the area.

 

According to the agreement, most of the stations will be established in the B areas, which are under Israel security control. Some of the stations were open until the start of the second intifada in 2000. They were later closed by Israel and some of them were demolished.

 

"The goal is to boost security in the West Bank and enforce law and order," said Hussein al-Sheikh, who is in charge of the coordination on the Palestinian side. Peter Lerner, spokesperson for the District Coordination Office, said that the two sides' representatives would meet in the coming weeks to build a timetable for the opening of the stations.

 

Over the past few months, many Palestinians from the West Bank have been trained in Jericho by experts from the European Union. These trainees, as well Palestinian police forces, are due to be in charge of the activity in the Jenin and Tulkarem areas, as well as in the southern West Bank, Bethlehem and Hebron.

 

The stations will be built following a meeting between Condoleezza Rice and Ehud Barak, in which the defense minister presented the US secretary of state with a series of gestures to the Palestinians, including the establishment of a Palestinian city, the delivery of 25 armored vehicles into Nablus, and increasing the number of Palestinians allowed to work in Israel by 5,000 people.

 

About a month ago, Defense Minister Barak approved the deployment of 600 Palestinian police officers in Jenin.

 

"It is our topmost responsibility to protect Israel's residents, but in order to help the chances of the talks with the Palestinians, we must make things easier for them, even at the price of a calculated risk," he said that day.

 

The police officers' activity in Jenin was planned according to the model implemented in Nablus, in which the security control remains in the hands of the IDF while the Palestinians are only allowed to engage in law enforcement.

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.18.08, 14:54
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