Arafat's New West Bank Security Chief Pledges to Stop Resistance Bombers

05/07/2002| IslamWeb

Pledging to try to stop Resistance bombings, a new commander was ready to take over the powerful West Bank Preventive Security force Friday after the former chief, dismissed by Yasser Arafat, ended a two-day standoff by accepting the ruling. Jibril Rajoub, deposed by Arafat in a Tuesday ruling, finally met Arafat late Thursday and accepted the decision after defying the Palestinian leader for two days. Arafat appointed the governor of Jenin, Maj. Gen. Zuheir al-Manasra, to replace Rajoub, second only to Arafat as a figure of power in the West Bank.

In an interview with The Associated Press, al-Manasra pledged that in his new job, he would try to stop Resistance bombers from attacking Israel. Many of the bombers, who have killed more than 200 Israelis in 21 months of conflict, came from the Jenin area.

Al-Manasra, an economist, was born in 1943 near the West Bank city of Hebron. In 1976, in Beirut, Lebanon, he fought at the Tel Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp, where more than 1,000 people were massacred by a Lebanese Christian militia at the height of the Lebanese civil war.

The former fighter for the Palestinian Liberation Organization also directed the office of Khalil el-Wazir, once a top aide to Arafat, who was assassinated in Tunis in 1988. El-Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, was the architect of many PLO attacks against Israel and he is widely thought to have been killed by agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

Al-Manasra was appointed governor of Jenin in 1996. The northern West Bank town is close to the line with Israel, and Al-Manasra had good relations with Israeli peace activists and with the Israeli mayor of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, Amram Mitzna.

"We have to continue our meetings with Israelis and change them from enemies and adversaries to partners," Al-Manasra told the AP.

The new commander said he would try to stop Palestinian bomb attacks. Seventy-one bombers have killed 251 Israelis since fighting began in September 2000.

"The Palestinian Authority is against such attacks on Israeli civilians," Al-Manasra said. "But it is a pity that the Israeli government is targeting Palestinian civilians, which makes some Palestinians resort to this method. But we will work against the bomb attacks."

Israel and the United States have been pressing Arafat to reform the Palestinians' cumbersome security services and direct them to stop attacks against Israelis.

Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib, a political analyst, said the changes would be followed by more restructuring and streamlining of the security services.

Khatib said the dismissals showed Arafat was delegating authority to his new interior minister, Abdel Razak Yihiyeh.

"It means that Palestinian reforms are not cosmetic," Khatib said. "It's touching upon the most sensitive bodies, like these security organs and the most powerful personalities. So, it is serious."

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian boy throws stones at an Israeli armored personnel carrier (APC) patrolling the Deheishe refugee camp, near Bethlehem July 5, 2002. (Magnus Johansson/Reuter