Palestinian Authority Security Service
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Security Service of the Palestinian Authority |
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| Supervisory authority | Palestinian Authority |
| founding | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Ramallah , West Bank , Palestinian Territory |
| Servants | approx. 76,500 |
| Budget volume | US $ 3 billion build-up supported |
The Security Service of the Palestinian Authority ( Arabic الأمن الوقائي الفلسطيني, DMG al-Amn al-wiqāʾī al-filasṭīnī ) is the official security service in the Palestinian Territories . It was founded in 1994 by then President Yasser Arafat in accordance with the Oslo Agreement . She is the de facto police and military authority of the Palestinian Authority with 76,500 men.
history
There was already a Palestinian police force during the British military administration and the British League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (1918–1948). In the Palestine War from 1948 to 1949, large parts of the Arab population were expelled from the newly founded State of Israel and the Palestinian police units were disbanded. A strip on the south coast that stretched from Gaza to the Egyptian border came under Egyptian administration . Eastern Palestine went to Jordan . Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan, which was given to East Jerusalem . The 1967 Six Day War and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by Israel exacerbated the Palestinian problem in the Middle East. The Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO), founded in 1964, subsequently propagated the armed struggle against Israel, but was expelled from Jordan in Black September 1970 .
From 1993 the PLO was the Palestinian representative in the peace negotiations in Oslo and Cairo with the USA and Israel and promoted Palestinian autonomy on the basis of the Gaza-Jericho Agreement . Armed units with military training therefore came from Fatah . According to the Cairo Agreement (1994), these PA units should be limited to 18,000 armed police officers . Today they have around 76,500 men. In the Second Intifada from October 2000 over 600 members of the National Authority's security service (the secret services or the police) were killed.
There were repeated incidents in which rival units shot at each other. The Palestinians called this the "chaos of arms". After the Israeli army reoccupied the previously vacated areas in the West Bank in 2005, the Palestinian police were also unable to carry out their duties. Vigilante justice and crime spread. Militias that had existed before 1994 "settled" disputes with shootings. Some of the officials of the autonomy authority fear reprisals against themselves or family members. In March 2005, gunmen attacked the police in Tulkarem after they took action against one of the gunmen.
Under Arafat, hardly any action was taken against officials who became criminals themselves or who belonged to the militia. His successor President Mahmud Abbas wanted to change this after his election in 2005. He restructured the various security services. Shortly after taking office, he sacked hundreds of officers from various units who were unwilling to reform. The retirement age for security officers has been set at 60 years.
Since the Oslo Accords, the USA has given the security authorities massive support in building a national armed force with training and support campaigns for the Palestinian security services. Since Abbas took office, the US State Department has provided direct financial and human support through the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and Palestine.
After the 2006 election victory of Hamas in the Gaza Strip , the security service of the autonomous authority had to withdraw from it. In June 2007 the security service played an important role in the fighting between Fatah and Hamas. Several members of the Preventive Security Bureau ( Secret Service ) were murdered in the Gaza Strip.
In 2007, the US-USSC began the security service, specifically the Palestinian National Security Forces (NSF) and the Force 17 to train and equip. The goal was to have ten standing battalions by 2010.
management
The management of the Palestinian military and police units cannot be compared with structures in Western states. The commanders mostly come from the time of the terrorist struggle against Israel and see their troops partly as independent armed forces for the implementation of specific, partly domestic interests.
Mohammed Dahlan was the first chief of the Palestinian Security Service from 1994 to 2002. Dahlan in 2002 was replaced by Rashid Abu Shbak . Jibril Rajoub was the head of security in the West Bank and was replaced by Zuhair Manasra in 2002.
Musa Arafat , one of Yasser Arafat's sons, was briefly head of the preventive security service (secret service). He had built up Fatah's military intelligence service in the Gaza Strip since 1994 . He was also head of Force 17 and was considered one of the most powerful men in the Gaza Strip. He held the rank of major general . However, Musa Arafat's appointment as police chief of the Gaza Strip by Yasser Arafat was met with violent protests, as rival groups within the PLO did not agree to his appointment. A state of emergency was temporarily imposed . After only two days as police chief, he was relieved of this position.
The current chief of the security services is the Minister of the Interior of the Palestinian Territories, Nasser Youssuf .
Equipment and funding
The units are usually armed with handguns such as pistols, assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons. Some of the weapons come from the time of the Intifada, some from military aid from Western states such as the USA.
The US financed the training and equipment of the security service with around 3 billion US dollars.
Training and cooperation
Some of the members received military training in Lebanon or other Arab countries. The USA took on a large part of the training .
US military aid
The USSC Headquarters for the Palestinian Territories is located in the US Consulate in Jerusalem . The training was also coordinated from there. Many US government officials have to adhere to the strict travel requirements of the State Department and were therefore only partially involved in the training. US contract employees were able to move relatively freely and were also stationed in Ramallah in the West Bank .
The US ran several training programs. The last program took place from 2007 to 2010 under the leadership of Lt. Gene. Keith Dayton of the US Army. It was part of the Palestinian Reform and Development Plan , which ran from 2008 to 2010 and was drawn up by the autonomous authority in order to implement the requirements of the roadmap.
EU police aid
The EU supported the establishment of the Palestinian police with the EU Police Mission in the Palestinian Territories (EUPOL COPPS) . The mission's headquarters are 20 kilometers north of Jerusalem in Ramallah in the Palestinian Territories. The EUPOL COPPS is also active on the territory of Israel. Europe as a mission actor, financier and personnel provider wants to help the rule of law in the domestic (police) and judicial area of the Palestinian self-government and the emerging state of Palestine on its feet. 30 local employees and 53 international police officers from EU countries and third countries ( Canada and Norway ) provide staff. In addition to police officers, prosecutors, lawyers and civil experts are also involved in the mission. Head of Mission is the Swedish higher service police officer Henrik Malmquist LLM (born 1962). The mission works within the framework of the EU Common and Defense Policy (CSDP) and is led by EU HR Catherine Ashton (UK). Two officials from Germany were employed at EUPOL-COPPS.
In parallel to EUPOL COPPS, the EU police mission European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah (EUBAM Rafah) has been working as a support mission at the Palestinian-Egyptian border crossing in Rafah ( Gaza Strip ) since November 25, 2005 . Following the closure of the transition as a result of the internal Palestinian conflict over Gaza in June 2007 and the takeover by Hamas , the implementation of EUBAM Rafah was temporarily suspended on June 15, 2007.
units
Most security service units are based on the Fatah military units. A clear separation of the units of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah party does not exist in all areas to this day. The Preventive Security Office is the National Authority's armed intelligence service .
The security apparatus consists of several separate branches. Around 1,500 men are distributed among the un numbered units.
- Military Intelligence Service Secret service of the naval forces , 30,000 men (including Force 17) commanded by Musa Arafat until his death .
- Office of preventive security in the West Bank (Preventive Security Force), 4000, Head of Jibril Rajoub , closely linked Tanzim connected. The office for preventive security in the Gaza Strip with the commander Muhammad Dahlan was destroyed by Hamas after the takeover.
- Presidential Guard (5,000 Presidential Security Force)
- Civil Police ( Palestinian Civil Police Force ), 11,000 men, based in Gaza, chief is Brigadier General Ghazi Jebali. Israel has repeatedly called for Ghazi to be ousted for supporting attacks on Jewish settlements.
- Public Safety (Public Security Force), 15,000 men, head Nasser Youssef
- Force 17 ( force 17 ), elite and guards unit is de facto the presidential guard ; transformed into a quasi-state security force with the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1993
- National Security Service , 5,000 men, head Haj Ismail Jabr
- General intelligence service in the West Bank , commanded by Tawfik Tirawi
- General Intelligence Service in the Gaza Strip , head of Amin Al-Hindi
- Coast Guard , Head Jawad Abu Hassan
- Tourism Police
- Force 14 ( Shurta al-Jawiyya ), airport police and air force of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah