The Palestinian police are inadequately armed, but their current campaign against lawlessness in the West Bank could help them win trust from wary Israelis, according to the top European adviser to the Palestinian force. That, in turn, could improve prospects for peace talks.
The head of the EU police mission, Britain's Colin Smith, pointed to the West Bank city of Nablus, where Palestinian security forces and a new civil police chief, Ahmed Sharkawi, are on a joint offensive against armed militias and common crooks.
"He took over in July and since then they've been working to reduce criminality," Smith told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. "He's dealt with street crime...he's looking at stolen vehicles, thefts."
On Monday, members of a new 300-strong paramilitary force deployed to the city by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad surrounded the Balata refugee camp for 12 hours until two men who had fired at a nearby police station surrendered with their weapons.
Fayyad paid a surprise visit to Nablus Thursday and declared himself satisfied.
"I am very happy with the security progress that I am feeling in Nablus," he told reporters. "I have respect and trust in the security personnel."
To strengthen his government's hand ahead of a Mideast conference later this month in the United States, Fayyad has vowed to disarm Palestinian gunmen, but security forces have generally avoided head-on confrontation.
Such security measures are considered crucial by Israel, which has suffered waves of suicide bombings originating in the West Bank. If Palestinian police succeed in getting a grip on the West Bank, that could persuade Israel to remove roadblocks, improving the atmosphere during peace talks.
Until such proof, however, Israel is reluctant to relax its army's grip on the West Bank, fearing attacks on Jewish settlers there or raids into Israel itself, while citing past incidents in which Palestinian security personnel took part in violence.
"Some of its members did involve themselves in terrorist actions...I think that memory dies hard," Smith told the AP at his Ramallah headquarters. "It's a matter of trust, hence the Nablus operation at the moment, which is about getting that balance right, so that both sides can progress together in an aura of trust and acceptance."
Smith's 32-member team deals only with the regular, blue-uniformed police, while a separate mission headed by U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has the task of reforming the Palestinian paramilitary and intelligence arms.
EU and United States rules forbid either Smith or Dayton from supplying the Palestinians with weapons or giving them firearms training.
The result, Smith says, is a police force ill-equipped to face down often better-armed criminals in an area awash with automatic weapons. He would like to see them stripped of the grab-bag of guns they now carry and issued with modern, efficient and properly registered sidearms.
"They carry pistols, but there's a variation," he said. I've seen some old Russian pistols around, they've got some really old AK 47 (assault rifles)...They need re-equipping."
Any import of arms to the landlocked West Bank would have to pass through Israel and win the approval of the Israelis, who point to the worsening security situation in the Gaza since Israel pulled out in 2005.
In June the violent Islamic Hamas seized power from the more moderate Fatah and has built up what the Israelis say is a formidable arsenal, lobbing rockets into southern Israel almost daily.
The international community shuns Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel or renounce the use of violence, so Smith's police training is at present limited to around 7,000 officers in the West Bank.
In Gaza, Smith said, another 12,000 officers are on paid leave, remaining loyal to Fayyad's West Bank-based government and ready to be recalled to service at some point in the future.
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Associated Press correspondent Ali Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Nablus.
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