[Sethreports] Report from the West Bank city of Jenin

[Seth Porcello]

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Report from the West Bank city of Jenin:
New Fateh led force created in the West Bank
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In a sign of increasing tensions between political leaders of Hamas  
and Fateh, 2,500 Al Aqsa fighters were reorganized into a new Fateh  
security force in the West Bank city of Jenin on saturday.  The new  
force took to the streets wearing black shirts carrying a picture of  
Yasser Arafat and chanting slogans from the first intifada.  In the  
city of Jenin the fighters were showered with candy by two local  
residents, before Atta Abu Rumeileh gave a speech in which he warned  
of  attempts by Hamas to undermine Fateh. This activation of a  
security force in Jenin comes just 18 days after Hamas created it's  
security force in Gaza.  No security force has ever been created  
parallel to the Palestine National Security force in the West Bank  
however, and it's role here is a matter of some confusion.  Atta Abu  
Rumeileh, the head of the new Security force in Jenin, explains:

This force will not be a substitute for the police, or any other  
system of the legal Palestinian National Authority.
The security systems alone do their tasks, and yesterday as we  
positioned this force we didn't perform any formal tasks on the  
street at all. We didn't stop cars or arrest any people. We are a  
force intended to assist the authority legal system whenever we are  
called for duty by the general commander of the Palestinian forces in  
Jenin or the police commander General. We will be soldiers who follow  
the orders of the police commander.  We started talks with President  
Mahmoud Abbas to enlist this force within the Palestinian police system.

Since the creation of the force on saturday, the west bank has  
already seen a parallel Fateh force created in Tulkarem.  I asked  
Atta Abu Rumeileh if he thought this trend might lead to violence in  
the West Bank of the kind already experienced in Gaza.

We will not allow anyone to extend the crisis in Gaza Strip to the  
West Bank.  We will prevent any organization, Hamas, Fateh which we  
are members of, or any other organization from causing trouble or  
crisis on the Palestinian street, the street cannot bear any more  
trouble. This force is not an alternative to the authority. This  
authority is the peoples' authority and we do respect it, and respect  
its legitimate institutions, and we are in communication with local  
leaders of Fateh in the West Bank to enable dispatching this force  
wherever there are attempts to make troubles or create illegal forces  
in the West Bank.  Whenever they want to talk, they have to talk in  
one language and not claim that the force in Gaza is legal, and this  
force in Jenin is illegal.  We are a force that does not claim to be  
legal, but will be legal as we become part of the Palestinian  
police.  We are a force to assist the law, order, and the national  
project of independence, and national unity.

While both Hamas and Israel have expressed alarm at the creation of  
these forces, neither has released any public statements indicating  
that there will be any retaliation.  Still, what role these forces  
will come to play both in palestinian politics and day to day life is  
a matter of some concern.  Grisan Andoni, Director of Bir Zeit  
University public relations office and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize nominee  
shares his opinion on the new force, and contextualized these  
developments within the larger history of palestinian political  
oppositions.

 From the west bank city of jenin, I'm seth porcello with the  
IMEMC.org in palestine.





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