|
| quote: | Originally posted by Cyrus King
I wish hamas were detained as well... but its pretty hard to detain a gang or mafia like organization that threatens and even controls the authority in some respects. |
That and I really do think that many in the PA are simply corrupt officials that really don't care about their own people. I heard this shocking story on NPR's morning edition the other day:
| quote: |
ANALYSIS: ISRAELI TROOPS WELCOMED BY MANY IN NABLUS AS DETERRENT TO GANG ACTIVITY
Morning Edition: September 15, 2003
Armed Gangs Battle for Control of Nablus
BOB EDWARDS, host:
The West Bank city of Nablus has been hard-hit in the last three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Israeli officials call it a center of terrorism, and Israeli troops have staged frequent raids into the city. Last year, Nablus residents spent five months under an Israeli-imposed curfew, yet when Israeli troops went back into the city last month, some residents welcomed them, saying their presence brought an end to a reign of terror by local Palestinian gangs. NPR's Linda Gradstein visited Nablus and filed this report.
LINDA GRADSTEIN reporting:
On a recent afternoon, Samiya Tufaha(ph) was finally able to get her hair done. The well-dressed young mother of three said the presence of Israeli soldiers in Nablus made her feel safe enough to leave her home on the outskirts of the city. For months before the latest Israeli incursion, she says, masked gunmen roamed the streets, fighting each other and terrorizing local residents.
Ms. SAMIYA TUFAHA (Resident of Nablus): Yeah, my husband tell me because--I mustn't go out, you must stay at home, because you can't go to the center of the city.
GRADSTEIN: Last month, after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem killed 22 people, Israeli troops re-entered Nablus to search for Palestinian militants. Tufaha's reaction is surprising.
Ms. TUFAHA: We felt so happy, really. When Israelis come here, we felt so happy because it's calmed down.
GRADSTEIN: While most in Nablus groaned at yet another Israeli incursion, Tufaha says the soldiers are looking for gunmen and do not bother ordinary citizens. Palestinians in Nablus say the city was on the verge of anarchy. More than a dozen residents were killed or wounded by members of the armed gangs. The thugs visited local businesses demanding protection money. Officials who have spoken out against the gangs have seen their cars torched. The brother of the governor or Nablus was kidnapped and held by gang members for several hours.
Near the Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of the city, armed Palestinians set up roadblocks and checked ID cards of local residents. Some people were detained and beaten by gang members in makeshift cells. Abdul Sattar Kassem is a professor of political science at An-Najah University and a sharp critic of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.
Professor ABDUL SATTAR KASSEM (An-Najah University): There has been some internal rivalry inside Nablus, particularly between prominent authority people like, for instance, the governor and the mayor, and each of them has his own supporters. And once in a while, this kind of friction or rivalry just breaks out into fighting. Most of those who suffer are the innocent people who are in the streets.
GRADSTEIN: It's not clear how many gang members there are. Professor Sattar Kassem estimates there are only a few dozen. He charges that the security services of the Palestinian Authority in Nablus have done little to stop the gangs.
Prof. KASSEM: So many of those people who are shooting belong to the security service, either to the presidential security or to the intelligence or to other departments. So the people have been crippled actually.
GRADSTEIN: The governor of Nablus, Brigadier General Mahmoud Alloul, disagrees. He says he would like to crack down on what he calls `these gangs of thugs and criminals,' but he says Israel has made that impossible by destroying Palestinian police stations and arresting members of the security forces.
Brigadier General MAHMOUD ALLOUL (Governor of Nablus): (Through Translator) There is a problem of covering the security situation in the region. The basic reason behind that is the Israeli commission that make the law and (unintelligible) absent as the result of the destruction of the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority.
GRADSTEIN: Many of the gang members say they belong to the Al Aqsa Martyr Bridgades, a militant offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against Israel over the past three years. Amin Mahbul(ph), the newly elected secretary-general of Fatah in the West Bank, says the movement will eventually deal with the gangs.
Mr. AMIN MAHBUL (Secretary-General of Fatah): I believe we Fatahs can make control, but when we can. Now, no; no one can make control now, because the Israeli in every day kill every day, arrested, you we cannot tell him, `Stop.'
SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN
GRADSTEIN: The streets of Nablus these days are crowded. With Israeli troops in control of the city, the gang members have gone underground, at least for now. But many here worry that if the Israeli soldiers pull out, the gangs could come back.
Linda Gradstein, NPR News.
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning....gradstein.html
|
Granted I'm sure IDF strikes against police stations have had some role in the affair, however, most certainly not to this degree! I think that among some PA officals, Israel has been an easy scapegoat and an easy sell to their people to cover up their own corruptness and ineptitude.
___________________
Retro ...
|
) that many terrorist are caught, and then released, either by Israel or the Palestinians to the determent of the peace process.... these are NO political prisoners.
