Will Palestinian police work with Israel? Palestinian security forces. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
A major committee in the Palestinian leadership has passed a resolution to end security cooperation with Israel, according to the Ma’an News Agency. The Palestinian leadership under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has allowed his security forces to coordinate with Israel for years, a partnership that helped protect Israel from terrorists and put down rival Palestinian political groups. The United States helped orchestrate the training for the Palestinian security teams.
But that could be coming to an end if the resolution to “suspend all forms” of security coordination that was passed by the Central Council for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is acted upon. The PLO is a quasi-governmental body led by Abbas and ultimately responsible for major Palestinian international affairs.
According to two PLO officials who spoke with Ma’an, the resolution to end the cooperation will come into effect at a later time after the PLO Executive Committee discusses it further. The Central Council’s statement said the Executive Committee would adhere to its resolutions.
That wasn’t the only resolution passed by the Council—also included is a plan to call upon the United Nations to establish a timeline for an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and sections of Jerusalem, which presumes the outcome of peace talks while they are still suspended.
Along those lines, the Council’s resolution explicitly rejected “attempts to recognize Israel as a Jewish State,” which is a key demand of Israel in the negotiations for fear that the Arabs might try to eventually strip Israel of its cultural identity through demographic and political change.
The Palestinians have already attempted to force Israel to withdraw within the last year at the UN, but it was voted down by the UN Security Council. This follows past efforts to get the UN Security Council to establish a Palestinian state, also outside peace talks with Israel.
The WAFA Palestinian news agency quoted Abbas as trying to argue during the Central Council’s meetings that the “ball” is in Israel’s court regarding the peace process, despite the fact that the Palestinians broke off the last round of discussions. Abbas also blamed Israel for tensions in the region, although it is now the Palestinians—not Israel—who are planning to halt security coordination.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, March 5, 2015)