Israel claims Palestinian police participate in terrorist attacks

JERUSALEM, July 20 (JTA) — The Israeli-Palestinian peace process, already in crisis, has been further hobbled by Israeli charges that senior Palestinian security officials are involved in planning terrorist attacks on Israelis. During Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, the head of the Shin Bet domestic security service, Ami Ayalon, disclosed that according to information obtained by Israel, two senior Palestinian security officers — Brig. Gen. Ghazi al-Jabali and Col. Jihad Masimi — were involved in planning the attacks. Jabali is the Palestinian police commander in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli official reportedly said Sunday that Israel had intercepted orders for the attacks that Jabali had sent to Masimi, a senior Palestinian police officer in the West Bank. Palestinian officials said Masimi and at least three other police officials had been detained for questioning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet that the allegations, if true, represented the gravest Palestinian violation to date of the self-rule accords. The United States told the Palestinians Friday to take the Israeli charges seriously. The allegations surfaced after Israeli officials arrested three Palestinian police officers last week near the West Bank town of Nablus. Israel suspected the three of being on their way to carry out a terror attack on the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha, located near Nablus. The three, who have been questioned by Israeli security forces, have reportedly confessed to opening fire on Jewish settlers and conspiring to commit terrorist acts. Israeli officials subsequently called on Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat to launch an inquiry into whether Palestinian police are cooperating with Hamas or acting independently to carry out terrorist attacks. Israeli and Palestinian officials made some progress last week in talks concerning the opening of a Palestinian airport in Gaza, one of the unresolved elements of the Interim Agreement signed in September 1995. But Israeli charges of alleged Palestinian police involvement in planning and carrying out terrorist attacks threatened to pose another setback to the fragile peace process. Foreign Minister David Levy discussed the allegations during a meeting Sunday with top Palestinian negotiator Nabil Sha’ath. Levy later said that the two men discussed the Israeli demand that the Palestinian Authority investigate the allegations. “We want actions, not statements. This is not a routine incident,” Levy told reporters. “It is their obligation to fight terrorism and violence.” Arafat, speaking Sunday in the West Bank town of Ramallah after meeting with Jordanian Prime Minister Abdul Salam al-Majali, said an inquiry was under way. He would not give any other details. Arafat’s talks with Majali focused on the peace process and increasing economic ties between Jordan and the self-rule areas. Levy’s discussions with Sha’ath were aimed in part at setting up a meeting later this week between Levy and Arafat at a European Union meeting in Brussels. But it remained unclear whether the Levy-Arafat meeting would take place. After his talks with Levy, Sha’ath told reporters that Arafat “has not yet taken a decision to go [to Brussels]. But certainly if he goes, he will meet with Mr. Levy.”