Israel is rightly concerned about the weakening of the PA in the northern West Bank and the participation of PA security personnel in terrorist operations against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The last event was the participation of the terrorist Ahmed Abed, a member of the Palestinian security forces, in the shooting attack in the Jenin area last week in which IDF officer Major Bar Falach was killed.
The participation of members of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in terrorist attacks against Israelis is not a new phenomenon, it has been a common thread in relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority for the past 29 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords and it challenges the security coordination between the two sides.
The security coordination did in several cases save the lives of Israelis who accidentally entered into PA areas and were rescued by PA security forces from lynch, but on the other hand, PA security personnel refrain from terrorist acts against Israel only when it serves the PA’s interests and the complys with the instructions of the chairman of the PA
that is Abu Mazen and before him of Yasser Arafat.
In September 1996, dozens of Palestinian policemen participated in firefights against IDF forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip because of the opening of the “Wall Tunnel” in the Old City of Jerusalem, 11 Israeli soldiers and 69 Palestinians were killed in the events, the fighting stopped only after the IDF brought tanks closer to the main Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
During the second intifada in 2000, hundreds of Palestinian security personnel participated in battles against IDF soldiers, the Palestinian policemen who were on joint patrols with IDF forces shot at IDF soldiers and the patrols were stopped.
Everything was under the direction of PA chairman Yasser Arafat who played a double game against Israel and the international community.
The IDF captured the Palestinian Authority’s counterintelligence headquarters in Gaza City and Bitoniya near Ramallah, Tawfik al-Tirawi who was the head of general intelligence in the West Bank led terrorist attacks and was wanted by Israel, in the end he received amnesty from the Shin Bet After pledging to stop the attacks.
After the election of Abu Mazen as chairman of the Palestinian Authority, the situation changed.
In 2005 American General Dayton began training the members of the Palestinian security forces and changed their perception of the need to fight terrorism and maintain the Oslo agreement with Israel.
But in the end, the PA security personnel’s avoidance of terrorism is a matter of interests of the PA leadership.
The security personnel of the PA are the members of the Palestinian people who carry out the instructions of the leadership in Ramallah and act according to the instructions of those who pay them the monthly salary.
Senior officials of the PA now claim that the security personnel of the PA are affected by the lack of a “political horizon” and the daily infiltrations of the Israel to the centers of the Palestinian cities and the refugee camps in Area A, the IDF coordinates this activity with the PA so that its forces stay away from the areas into which the IDF forces enter.
The PA claims that these actions presents them as collaborators or a “security contractor” of Israel.
According to a senior PA official, the participation of PA security personnel in terrorist attacks against Israel is the result of great frustration that, although they carry an official role, they cannot provide protection to the Palestinians from IDF forces in areas that are under the full sovereignty of the PA according to the Oslo Accords.
For example, the father of the terrorist Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi from Nablus, who is a colonel in the Palestinian security forces, was unable to prevent his son’s arrest by members of the PA security forces for 6 months and then his assassination by the IDF forces about two months ago.
Fathi Hazem, the father of the terrorist Raed Hazem who carried out the attack on Dizingoff Street in Tel Aviv this year, who is a senior member of the Palestinian national security forces, became wanted by the Israeli Shin Bet because he regularly incites for terrorism and violence against Israel in the Jenin area.
Last week, the wanted terroist Uday Tared, whose father is an officer in the Palestinian police, was killed in Kfar Dan, in the Jenin area. Last month, the terrorist Wasim Khalifa was killed in Nablus, whose father is also an officer in the Palestinian security forces.
Several Palestinian security personnel were arrested by the Shin Bet because of terrorist activity, such as Muhammad al-Tubasi from the Jenin refugee camp, who was a Palestinian security officer, in the town of Silwad in the Ramallah area, a Palestinian security officer was arrested, whose two sons are detained in an .Israeli prison
Israel sent a strong warning message to the Palestinian Authority regarding the participation of its security personnel in attacks against Israelis.
This phenomenon of Palestinian security personnel participating in terrorism against Israel could expand if they feel that they have a “green light” from Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen.
Therefore, it is very important that he would publicly send a clear message to the security forces of the Palestinian Authority that he opposes the terrorist attacks, he is now maintaining silence and this is interpreted on the ground as if he is not opposed to the wave of terrorism that plagues the territories.
The upcoming speech of Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen at the UN General Assembly is very important, if he conveys ambiguous messages against terrorism this could lead to increased violence as has happened in 2015, therefore Israel and the US are exerting heavy pressure on the Palestinian PA so that his speech at the UN will be moderate and oppose terrorism.
