Jenin - fasade og realitet

Pale­stinske myn­dig­he­ter har lenge påstått at de har ryd­det opp i kor­rup­sjon og lov­løs­het og brukt Jenin som eksempel.

Dra­pet på den israelsk-arabiske skue­spil­le­ren og regis­sø­ren Julian Mar-Khamis ifjor, var et sjokk. Mor­derne er aldri funnet.

Sist uke fikk bor­ger­mes­te­ren i Jenen hjerte­at­tak, og - viste det seg - etter et atten­tat. Nå inn­røm­mer pale­stinske myn­dig­he­ter i Ramal­lah at det er sik­ker­hets­styr­kene i Jenin som er ute av kon­troll: det er ingen for­skjell på dem og gangstre.

How Jour­na­lists Allowed the Pale­sti­nian Aut­hority to Fool Them

by Kha­led Abu Toameh

The Pale­sti­nian Aut­hority has been boa­sting over the past four years of its success in rest­o­ring law and order to the West Bank city of Jenin.

Jour­na­lists from all around the world were invited to Jenin, once noto­rious for dis­patch­ing suicide bom­bers to Israel, to report on the Pale­sti­nian government’s success­ful efforts.

Pale­sti­nian lea­ders and govern­ment offi­ci­als told the jour­na­lists how their security for­ces have mana­ged to end the state of chaos and law­lessness that used to pre­vail in Jenin.

They talked about how Fatah gang­s­ters and thugs who used to roam the stre­ets, impos­ing an atmosphere of inti­mi­da­tion and ter­ror on the popu­la­tion, have vanished.

Most of the gang­s­ters, the Pale­sti­nian govern­ment offi­ci­als noted, had been recruited to various bran­ches of the Western-funded Pale­sti­nian security for­ces and were indi­rectly rece­i­ving sala­ries from Ame­ri­can and Euro­pean tax­pay­ers’ money.

Many Western cor­re­spon­dents rushed to Jenin to cover the story about the success of the Pale­sti­nian Aut­hority in rest­o­ring law and order.

One of the most popu­lar sto­ries was the fact that Zaka­ria Zubeidi, the for­mer com­man­der of Fatah’s armed militia, Aqsa Mar­tyrs Bri­ga­des, which was behind dozens of ter­ror attacks against Israel, was now run­ning a local thea­ter and pro­mo­ting coexist­ence and peace.

But while the inter­na­tio­nal, and Israeli, media were breaking the “good news” about Jenin, the jour­na­lists fai­led to under­stand what was really going on in Jenin and its sur­round­ing vil­la­ges. Some jour­na­lists, in fact, chose to turn a blind eye to the grim rea­lity on the ground.

The mur­der of Israeli Arab actor and film pro­du­cer Julian Mar-Khamis in Jenin last year should have soun­ded an alarm bell among the media repre­sen­ta­ti­ves. His kil­lers have never been caught, spar­king a wave of uncon­fir­med reports about the involve­ment of influ­en­tial Fatah gang­s­ters and Pale­sti­nian security offi­cers in the case.

A Western jour­na­list who wan­ted to do an investi­ga­tive report into the case was warned by senior Pale­sti­nian security offi­cers that she would be put­ting her life at risk if she insis­ted on car­ry­ing out this mission.

Last week, the truth about the situa­tion in Jenin finally explo­ded in the faces of eve­ryone: the local governor died of a fatal heart attack following an unsuccess­ful assas­si­na­tion attempt.

For the Pale­sti­nian Aut­hority lea­dership, the assas­si­na­tion attempt was what lif­ted the veil: Pale­sti­nian lea­ders in Ramal­lah rea­lized that they could no lon­ger con­ti­nue to hide the truth about what was really hap­pe­ning in Jenin.

Pale­sti­nian security for­ces have since arrested dozens of Fatah “out­laws” and police offi­cers for various cri­mes -- inclu­ding mur­der, extor­tion, abduc­tions, sexual har­ass­ment and armed robberies.

Radi Asideh, the security com­man­der of the Jenin area, admit­ted that it was the Pale­sti­nian security estab­lish­ment that was respon­s­ible for the anar­chy and law­lessness. “There is a defect inside the security estab­lish­ment and offi­cers were respon­s­ible for this,” he revealed.

The big­gest mis­take, Asideh added, was that the Pale­sti­nian lea­dership had tur­ned its back to the defect, allowing the situa­tion to deteriorate at the expense of the people’s security.

Pale­sti­ni­ans say that anar­chy and law­lessness are to be found also in other areas in the West Bank where the Pale­sti­nian Aut­hority claims to have impo­sed law and order. And, they add, in most cases it is the Pale­sti­nian Authority’s security for­ces that are respon­s­ible for the chaos and corruption.

If the Western jour­na­lists and donors con­ti­nue to ignore the rea­lity on the ground, the West Bank could soon fall into the hands of gang­s­ters and armed clans, as has been the case in Jenin -- among the main rea­sons the Pale­sti­nian Aut­hority col­lap­sed in the Gaza Strip in 2007, speeding the rise of Hamas to power.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3053/jenin-security

docu­ment tak­ker Kha­led Abu Toameh for til­la­telse til republisering.