Shooting of Fatah activist could doom security cooperation - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

posted on: Mar 2, 2015

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his security forces have been stubbornly resisting calls to end security coordination, which has been one of the key guarantors of Israeli security and continuity of the Palestinian government.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 24, Israeli military units entered the Dheisheh refugee camp, situated in Area A, under Palestinian security control. The camp is two kilometers (1.2 miles) south of the main headquarters of the Palestinian National Guard in Bethlehem. According to the Oslo Accord, Israelis army units are forbidden in the areas under Palestinian security control, but years of Israeli violations have produced a simple unwritten understanding that when Israeli troops arrive, Palestinian security forces withdraw from the scene, and the local population normally engages them, throwing stones at the well-armed soldiers.

At 3 a.m., the Israeli effort to apprehend Saleh J’uedi failed because by the time they got to his home in the refugee camp, he was no longer there. As has been the custom in such situations, local youths pelt the invading soldiers with stones, but all the troops normally leave, with or without the person they had come to detain. There is no recent record of an Israeli soldier dying from Palestinians throwing stones at them. Israel’s own rules of engagement forbid shooting live ammunition unless the life of a soldier is in danger. Contrary to this rule, Israeli soldiers responded with what Suheir Ismael, a local activist, told Al-Monitor was “an extraordinary heavy barrage of live ammunition.” Jaafari was hit and died on the way to the hospital. According to Ismael, Jaafari had been active in the Abbas-affiliated Fatah movement.

The speaker of the Palestinian National Council, Salim Zanoun, called a meeting of the 124-member Palestinian Central Council at the Muqata presidential headquarters in Ramallah March 4-5 to decide on issues concerning the future of the Palestinian national struggle. In addition to Palestine’s joining the International Criminal Court and the ramifications of having done so, another issue for discussion will be the future of security coordination with Israel.

Source: www.al-monitor.com