June 2000 - Current
Index Complete
Index This Month
MiddleEast.Org
6/11 |
|
|
To receive MER regularly email to INFOMER@MiddleEast.Org |
East Jerusalem Chaos, Fear, Repression
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington, D.C. - 6/12:
It's a very complicated situation; and a very sensitive
time. In one very important sense articles of this kind coming right
now play into the Israeli hand by making it possible to further push and
cajole Yasser Arafat into a "final settlement" at a time of maximum Israeli
power -- and this is clearly the main goal of former commando General now
PM Ehud Barak. On the other hand such articles also further stimulate
the Israeli opposition -- but this is probably thought to be a necessary
scenario if the public relations aspects of all this are to work so that
Arafat can be brought to the White House lawn pen in hand one more "final"
time.
So much for the timing aspects, however. What
is more and more clear overall is that the Israelis are trying to bring
to the now-enclaved Palestinians a kind of mafia statelet where repression,
lawlessness, fear, and corruption are considerably greater than at any
time in the past and can be locked in for some time to come.
Such a regime fits well the kind of sandwich the
Zionists and the Hashemites have long wanted to have with the Palestinians
wedged inside. Rather than real independence and freedom in a democratic
State, the Israelis through the Arafat regime (and with much help and encouragement
form the Hashemite Regime) are attempting to trap the Palestinians into
"final status" agreements from which fear will be ever-present and extrication
exceedingly difficult. Doing so involves allowing to develope, at
least for now, the situation that is described in this Ha'aretz article
about East Jerusalem.
ABDUCTION OPPOSITE THE JUSTICE MINISTRY
"...the approaching negotiations on Jerusalem
will be accompanied by serious Intifada
incidents within the city, as a means of
pressure to obtain concessions."
"...the residents of East Jerusalem, who
for years saw Israeli rule as permanent,
are no longer sure of this."
"PA uses terror - including murder - to
control Jerusalem Arabs."
[Ha'aretz, by Nadav Shragai, 12 June 2000]:
#1 PA kidnaps people in the middle of Jerusalem for criticizing
PA and suspicion of cooperating with Israel
About a month ago, N. was driving his car down Saladin Street in the
center of East Jerusalem. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed
a
vehicle speeding towards him from behind. Within a few seconds the
car blocked his way, two husky fellows jumped out, opened the doors
of his car, held a pistol to his head and ordered him to drive in the
direction of Jericho.
For three weeks N. was held on the premises of the Palestinian
security service and interrogated on suspicion of having collaborated
with Israel. The abduction itself, symbolically enough, was carried
out opposite the Israeli Justice Ministry on Saladin Street, and the
details of it became known to Israeli police investigators from N.
himself, only after he was released.
Y., a teacher in a municipal school in Jerusalem, had a similar
experience. He was abducted as he was crossing the street near the
school where he teaches. He, too, was blocked by a car. He was taken
to Abu Dis, where the abductors, members of the Palestinian security
force, changed cars and continued to Ramallah. Y. was tortured, and
returned home after three weeks, exhausted and broken.
Last weekend, Palestinian journalist Maher al Alami was kidnapped
from his home in Shuafat, after he expressed criticism of the
policies of the PA in the field of human rights. In recent months a
similar fate also befell three Muslim clergymen connected to the
mosques in Ras al Amud, Beit Tsafafa and Hizma. Two weeks ago,
elements at the Shin Bet informed Minister of Public Security Shlomo
Ben-Ami that since the beginning of the year, more than 40 people -
some of them Israeli citizens - have been abducted from Jerusalem,
which is under Israeli sovereignty, by Palestinian security forces.
Not long ago the government was informed that the Israeli security
services have in their possession a list of 42 Palestinian land
dealers who are being threatened by the Palestinian security services
because of professional connections with Jewish land purchasers. This
is not the first time that the PA security services have operated on
Saladin Street. In at least one case they used the modus operandi of
civil police.
#2 PA security takes the place of Israeli Police - Israel Police
recommend dealing with PA instead of Israel in Jerusalem
One of the buildings on the street, which is abandoned, became a
center for drug dealers and narcotics addicts. The neighbors recall
that once or twice they complained to the Jerusalem police, but
nothing happened, so the PA security service was called into action.
Eyewitnesses relate that Palestinian police wearing civilian clothes
dragged out of the building three young men known to be drug dealers
and beat them up. The three were taken for interrogation to a
Palestinian police installation in Ramallah.
A strange incident, which apparently is not the only one of its kind,
took place recently in the Beit Hanina area. The house of one of the
residents of the village was broken into. The man rushed to the
nearest police station and there, to his astonishment, the duty
officer, an Israeli policeman, directed him to the men of Jibril
Rajoub's Preventive Security force. "They are patrolling the area.
Ask them for help," recommended the duty officer in all seriousness.
#3 Israel find hard to keep track of the 6 PA security
organizations operating in Jerusalem
A many-tentacled octopus
There are six Palestinian intelligence and security forces active in
Jerusalem, to a greater or lesser extent. Professionals in Israel
sometimes find it hard to define their functioning, in part because
of the internal competition among these bodies themselves. The most
active is Jibril Rajoub's Preventive Security force. He has at his
disposal, in Jerusalem alone, hundreds of men in the field, many of
them graduates of Israeli prisons who served terms for hostile acts.
Five additional bodies, apart from Rajoub's men, are also active in
the city, with varying degrees of intensity.
The Palestinian General Intelligence, headed by Toufiq Tarawi, is
very active in engaging collaborators within the city. Force 17 is
commanded in the West Bank by Feisal Abu Sharah, who visits Jerusalem
from time to time. The "blue" Palestinian Police is under Razi
Jibali, who is located in Gaza; his representative in Jerusalem is
Muhammed Jabri, who operates from Ramallah to Abu Dis. There is also
the Military Intelligence headed by Moussa Arafat, and finally, the
"Provincial Security," which is subordinate to the governor of the
Province of Jerusalem, Jamal Othman Nasser. The men of this branch
are active in particular in the organization of sulhas - formal
reconciliations between feuding individuals or families - and the
enforcement of rulings by the Palestinian mediation bodies.
#4 GSS first wanted PA to operate in Jerusalem -
now out of control
The security services of the PA began operating in Jerusalem about
seven years ago with the agreement of the Shin Bet. At first, this
was minor, clandestine activity, almost on tiptoe, but gradually it
grew to such dimensions that a senior Shin Bet official has recently
called the phenomenon "a many-tentacled octopus. A Golem that has
risen up against its creator."
The Israeli agreement to security activity by the PA in Jerusalem was
given because of operational considerations of the Shin Bet. With the
withdrawal from territories in Judea and Samaria and the collapse of
the network of collaborators to which Israel was connected, the Shin
Bet found it difficult to obtain information of what was going on in
those areas.
The Intifada and the strengthening of the power of the PA in
Jerusalem also created intelligence difficulties within the city
itself. The PA was prepared to help Israel with preventive
intelligence under certain conditions, the most important of which
was freedom of action in East Jerusalem.
Israel agreed to pay the Palestinians in the coinage of jurisdiction
in Jerusalem, and to come to terms with the existence of foreign
police, enforcement, prevention and intelligence forces in its
capital in exchange for services the Palestinians provided in other
areas, and sometimes in Jerusalem itself. Gradually, the operations
grew to dimensions that are out of control, which has led to protests
not only from the Israel Police but also from the Shin Bet. However,
the top government level, in its various manifestations (former prime
ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and
currently Prime Minister Ehud Barak), in coordination with the head
of the Shin Bet, have chosen to turn a blind eye.
#5 PA uses terror - including murder - to control Jerusalem
Arabs, operates from many locations
Operations from innocent sites
Looking the other way exacts a price. Israeli apparently has gained
intelligence cooperation with the Palestinians - which by its very
nature remains secret, so that it is hard to evaluate it - but has
lost portions of sovereignty and control in the area it has declared
to be its capital. The Palestinian security forces prevented Arab
citizens of East Jerusalem from voting in the municipal elections and
have imposed terror, beaten people up, thrown cherry bombs,
threatened and called commercial strikes.
The Arabs of East Jerusalem, as an independent constituency,
participated in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative
Council. The Palestinian security organizations replaced the mufti,
who had been appointed by Jordan on the Temple Mount, with a mufti
of
their own choosing and have detailed armed body guards to Palestinian
VIPs, as a way of demonstrating their power. They have also detailed
their own guards to the Shaariya religious court in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian security organizations have invested considerable
money and resources in the establishment of a network of
collaborators and informers, with one aim - the prevention of real
estate deals designed ultimately to bring land into Jewish hands. And
frequently, they have succeeded. The height of the operations against
the land dealers has been, as is known, the murder of a number of them.
Rajoub's men and Tirawi's men have summoned residents of East
Jerusalem to testify, for interrogations and for questioning.
Sometimes they have been tortured, or held under arrest for many long
weeks. The "reconciliation commissions" - mechanisms for mediation
-
have become a part of life in East Jerusalem, and anyone who insists
on turning to an Israeli court has been subjected to threats or even
the victim of violence.
The Palestinian Police has become an address for complaints in
criminal matters and property matters in East Jerusalem. The
principal of a school in Beit Hanina, who was beaten up by her
students, turned to the PA Police. The Indian ambassador to Israel,
who one day discovered that the Palestinians had taken over the Al
Aksa School building in the Old City - real estate under Indian
ownership - chose to turn to the PA people, and not to the Foreign
Ministry or to the Israeli courts.
An intelligence report that surveys the modes of operation of the
Palestinian security organizations in Jerusalem reveals that they
operate "as the opportunity presents from seemingly innocent sites
such as the Ambassador Hotel, the American Colony Hotel, the Shabiba
center on Saladin Street, the Palestinian Prisoners Club in the Nuzha
Building, the Philadelphia Restaurant on Rashidiya Street and the Al
Quds Restaurant on Saladin Street.
"Detective operations are carried out, along with patrols and
demonstrations of presence in areas where there is criminal activity
by drug dealers, prostitutes and pickpockets, for example in the
environs of Gethsemene, Saint Anne's Church, the Lions Gate' and the
Via Dolorosa," the report says.
"They are guarding the Al Aksa Mosque and have detailed bodyguards to
the governor of the province, the mufti and other dignitaries."
# 6 PA extorts funds from Jerusalem Arabs
The report also looks at their operational methods: "The funding of
some of their activities by 'donations," which are on the borderline
of extortion/protection money from wealthy people in Jerusalem;" "the
use of couriers, usually taxi drivers on the Jerusalem-Abu Dis line,
for transmitting messages;" "the use of hired guns" and "the use of
operational cells who carry out special missions - abductions and
punishments."
#7 GSS admits situation out of control with PA ignoring
limits set on operations
Toufiq Tarawi himself told Palestinian Television only a few months
ago (February 20) that: "Insofar as possible, and even though there
are provisions in the agreement that anyone carrying an Israeli
identity card must not be arrested," Palestinians with Israeli papers
are also arrested. "We arrest them and bring them to trial," said
Tirawi. "Among them are people who have spent three or four months
in
prison, and have been released on bail or not on bail."
"Israel's dependence on the Palestinian security services," admitted
a
top Shin Bet official a few months ago, "is what gave rise to the growth
of these bodies in East Jerusalem, and now we are no longer the only
address there."
However, it was not only this dependence that led to
the PA takeover of East Jerusalem. Alongside the security operations,
the PA continues to conducted considerable diplomatic activity in
East Jerusalem, as if it were its capital. The minister in charge of
Jerusalem affairs, Minister Without Portfolio Haim Ramon, has
recently said several times from the Knesset podium that the extent
and level of diplomatic activity has gone down since Ehud Barak took
office, particularly at the Orient House. Feisal Husseini addressed
the limitations imposed by Israel on activity at the Orient House
during the visit by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Jozias van
Aartsen in September 1999 to the al Mukassed Hospital in East
Jerusalem: "The Palestinians have begun to receive their visitors at
different sites in East Jerusalem. In effect, nothing has changed.
Even if the meetings do not take place at Orient House, that is still
where they are organized."
#8 Hundreds of PA events in Jerusalem since Barak's
election, official foreign visitors
Since Barak was elected prime minister, there have been hundreds of
events held in East Jerusalem organized or under the auspices of the
Palestinian Authority. Here are some of the more outstanding ones:
the Palestinian Minister of Social Affair Intisar Al Wazir (Umm
Jihad) held a working visit to the Austrian Center for Community Aid
in the Old City; the PA's mufti, Sheikh Arama Tsabari, hosted a
representative of the American Consulate in Jerusalem in his office
on the Temple Mount; Feisal Husseini had diplomatic talks with the
Russian envoy to the Middle East, Aleksander Sultanov; Moroccan
legislators and mayors visited Orient House and the Temple Mount as
Husseini's guests. This was a return visit after Husseini, as a
representative of Al Quds (Jerusalem), signed a twin cities agreement
with the city of Fez; the speaker of the Jordanian parliament visited
Orient House as the official guest of the Palestinian Legislative
Council and its speaker, Ahmad Qureia (Abu Ala).
There have also been visits to Orient House by official delegations
from Tunisia and Qatar, as well as by French Foreign Minister Hubert
Vedrine and the interior minister of Zimbabwe. Palestinian security
men accompanying high-ranking foreign visitors distance, often by
force, Israeli security men who try to continue to perform their duty
inside Orient House, which even now enjoys in effect
extra-territorial status. At the American Colony hotel, British
Foreign Minister Robin Cook paid a visit. The Palestinian Authority
Culture and Arts Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, has visited Palestinian
cultural institutions in the city. At the offices of the Chamber of
Commerce a cooperation agreement between the PA and the government
of
Tunisia was signed; at Orient House, a cooperation agreement with
Israeli Arabs was signed. Members of the Palestinian Legislative
Council took part.
A site that has become particularly popular during recent months,
which has gradually replaced Orient House as the venue for the
reception of official guests, is the Temple Mount. There, among
others, the vice consul of the United States, the French consul, the
Spanish ambassador to Israel, a religious figure from India and the
Jordanian minister of culture have been greeted as official guests
of
the PA and its mufti.
#9 Israel security warns of danger of handing over
Abu Dis to PA
Losing control
At a meeting of the Jerusalem Forum that was held at the Public
Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami's office about two weeks ago,
security sources estimated that the handing over of Abu Dis, its
great proximity to Jerusalem and the territorial continuity between
it and al Azzariya and Arab neighborhoods within the jurisdiction of
the Jerusalem municipality will lead to a further expansion of PA
activities in East Jerusalem in general and on the Temple Mount in
particular.
Ben-Ami asked whether anyone though that there was a positive side to
the handing over of Abu Dis to the Palestinians. No one said a word.
Alongside the intensive security operations of the PA in Jerusalem,
Israel has succeeded over the past year-and-a-half in significantly
increasing the sense of security among Israelis who live in or visit
East Jerusalem. The markets in East Jerusalem, especially in the Old
City, are buzzing with tourists and Israelis, as they had not been
for some years now, and there is almost no hostile terrorist
activity. However, there is a fear that this quiet is only temporary.
#10 PA expected to clash in Jerusalem to pressure
to concessions
The governing infrastructure that the PA has built up for itself in
East Jerusalem is the basis for the demand the PA Chairman Yasser
Arafat is now making in the talks with Israel to get real authority
in East Jerusalem. Intelligence estimates are that the approaching
negotiations on Jerusalem will be accompanied by serious Intifada
incidents within the city, as a means of pressure to obtain
concessions.
In this campaign, activists of the Tanzim (the popular movement of
the Fatah) are expected to take part. They participated in the recent
violent outbreaks in the territories, and in one way or another the
security organizations and the diplomatic institutions operating in
the city on behalf of the PA are also expected to take part. Israel,
which for years has been trying to depict East Jerusalem as an
integral part of the country, is now, after 33 years, discovering
that in many senses the Arab areas of the city are being taken from
its hands.
#11 Not all east Jerusalem residents want PA -
looking for refuge in Israel
Not all the residents of East Jerusalem are pleased with this
emerging trend. There are still several advantages to living in
Israeli Jerusalem: National Insurance Institute payments to children
and the elderly and national health insurance, as well as the freedom
of expression and human rights, which are not among the sacred
principles of the Palestinian. People have an eye on their own
interests as well as on their principles. It is for this reason,
perhaps, that when the first reports came out of Israel's intention
to hand over to the Palestinian Authority civil-municipal control of
Beit Hanina and Shuafat, a number of wealthy residents of these
neighborhoods hastened to look into the possibility of acquiring
"refuge apartments" in the "secure area" - in Jewish neighborhoods
like Nahalaot and Pisgat Ze'ev.
It is too early to evaluate whether this interest is the beginning of
a trend. It is clear, however, that the residents of East Jerusalem,
who for years saw Israeli rule as permanent, are no longer sure of
this.
|
|
Copyright © Mid-East Realities
& The Committee On The Middle East.
|