RAMALLAH, West Bank, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- An Israeli major last week mistakenly drove into the West Bank town of Jenin, a city even foreign correspondents were warned not to enter in cars bearing Israeli license plates.
Before long, armed gunmen rushed over and opened fire. In past incidents, soldiers who mistakenly entered Palestinian communities were lynched.
This time, however, a Palestinian policeman went to the officer’s aid followed by security men. They protected him and returned him to Israel without a scratch.
Their action and readiness to have their pictures published indicated the militants instill less fear now.
“You no longer see a masked gunman at every lamppost,” said Israeli intelligence Brig. Gen. in the reserves Shalom Harari, who specializes in Palestinian affairs.
When the incident occurred, gunmen belonging to the Fatah Party’s al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades were at a security headquarters in town. They stayed put, fulfilling their part in an agreement with Israel.
The deal provided that 178 members of the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin and in other West Bank towns surrender their arms to the Palestinian Authority, undertake not to engage in militant activities and stay in PA security compounds for three months. In return, Israel will no longer pursue them.
It is not an amnesty, and an Israeli official said their past deeds are not forgotten. It is sort of a gentlemen’s agreement, though plenty of people here would choke over the idea their counterparts are gentlemen. Both sides remain suspicious of each another.
A similar understanding that included a plan to co-opt militants into Palestinian security organizations failed several years ago. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has long sought to disband militants and create “one authority” and “one gun.” He renewed his effort when Fatah and the Islamic Hamas formed their short-lived national-unity government. The militants threatened to resist moves to disband them, but eventually changed their minds.
Palestinian officials told United Press International they needed clearance to discuss the matter. Then, following a meeting with Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Abdul al-Razzaq al-Yahia, a senior official called to say they received no such authorization.
An Israeli defense source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing intelligence material said Hamas’ victory in Gaza scared Fatah’s militants.
They knew the Palestinian people were fed up with chaos and lawlessness and that Hamas succeeded in restoring order in Gaza. The Fatah men feared the Islamic movement might win a showdown in the West Bank as well.
Moreover, they “understood something changed with Abu Mazen,” the official continued, referring to Abbas’ popular name.
Abu Mazen has been criticized for having lost Gaza to Hamas because he did not give the proper orders to fight Hamas. The militants sensed Abbas might be more decisive now “and turn against them.”
They told Abbas Israel wants to kill them. Who will protect them if they disarm, they asked?
Abbas presented their argument to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who asked: If we stop pursuing them, will you disband them?
Abbas said he would, the defense source related.
Several militants indicated they were tired of fighting.
At the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Ahmad Abu-Saltah told a Haaretz reporter, “We’re tired. We want to live quietly. Look at the Israeli soldiers. They go home, go to the beach with their girlfriends. We too want to go to the beach.”
Faez Tirawi, who heads the al-Aksa Brigades-Central Command in Balata, said he had spent nine years in prison and has hardly seen his three children.
Israel too favored this deal. It wants to strengthen Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who oppose violence, seek a compromise with Israel and are competing with the radical Hamas over whose record better serve the Palestinians.
Moreover, the agreement would fallow Israel to shift intelligence-gathering efforts from Fatah militants to Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and smaller groups bent on continuing the struggle. Rather than send highly trained Special Forces to arrest Fatah militants, it can use them against the other more radical organizations.
Israel presented a list of people who would qualify for this deal and at a news conference in Ramallah Fayyad said, “The vast majority complied.”
A German TV correspondent reported a different experience. He told Fayyad he had attended an event in Nablus in which militants gave police their weapons. Police then left the room without the arms, the gunmen took their weapons and went away.
Fayyad replied some people did not want to subscribe to the agreement because it did not include their comrades.
Harari estimated only half the people on the list accepted the agreement.
Israeli and Palestinian sources said the PA offered to pay for the arms.
Surrendering arms does not mean the militants who accepted the deal handed over all they had. The commander of al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades in Jenin, Zakaria Zubeidi, used to appear with an M-16 topped with a telescopic lens. Now he carries a pistol.
Zubeidi and 48 of his men are hosted at Jenin’s security compound, and Baltimore Sun correspondent John Murphy last week found some of them there, lying on cots watching television.
They are not locked up. Zubeidi, for example, went out to meet friends, relatives and to classes. He is studying social work.
However, said Harari, they were not planning attacks and the defense official noted that, “So far it’s not working badly.”
Meanwhile, other Fatah militants who were not on Israel’s original list asked to join the program.
They “approached us and said, ‘We are wanted. We have weapons. We want to be included in this process,’” Information Minister Riad Malki told UPI.
“We want to end this file completely. Whoever carried a weapon and considers himself to be wanted, we will deal with him accordingly,” the minister added.
The Israelis checked the list and told the Palestinians some 110 of those people are not wanted. There are others who Israel refuses to add to the list, and negotiations are under way.
