Israel has no formal veto on who is recruited to the Palestinian police force, Police Minister Moshe Shahal acknowledged in an interview with The Jerusalem Report. All it can do, he said, is hope the PLO will draft law-abiding citizens into the ranks of its police.
The Palestinian police, the minister told The Report during a recent visit to California, will be vital in bringing stability to the autonomous Palestinian regions and, as such, he insisted, they must be armed not with helicopters, but certainly with light weapons. The Jerusalem Report: There's talk that the Palestinian police will be armed with AK-47s, and may even have resort to helicopters. Moshe Shahal: The talk is in the newspapers and media, and they are very creative. Certainly the Palestinians are not going to have any helicopters. Why do they need to be armed at all? In the Camp David accords, signed when Menachem Begin was prime minister, Israel agreed there would be a strong Palestinian police force formed of Palestinians and Jordanians, and that it would have jurisdiction over the autonomous region which at that time was intended to include all of Gaza and the West Bank including the Israelis living there.
What we are talking about now is a limited police force, and like any police force, they will need light arms. Even in Switzerland police officers have guns. Even in Los Angeles, I believe.
Those who are against the police force are against the peace process. If they are going to be strict in their duties, this Palestinian force will become an important factor in achieving stability. They are going to prevent terrorism against Israelis within the state and in the settlements. Do you have any sense of the political affiliations of recruits? How do we know they won't include Hamas or other security risks? This should be the concern of the Palestinians. They will have to see to it that those who join their force are law-abiding citizens. So Israel has no veto on recruitment of police personnel? No, not a formal veto. What do you make of settler threats to shoot armed Palestinian police on sight? We are going to work to prevent any act of violence, whether by a Palestinian or an Israeli… Israel will not let the territories become another Lebanon. Will Israeli police be able to arrest a Palestinian in the autonomous areas? If he is accused of a felony within the jurisdiction of the Israeli police or security forces, certainly yes. But I don't think this question will arise in a practical way only if there is a serious offense committed by Palestinians against Israelis, which necessitates our entering those territories to seize a terrorist or a criminal. Most cases should be solved by the daily cooperation of the two police forces. o Shahal: Palestinian cops will thwart terror