PA rejects request to disarm at Joseph’s Tomb
By YAAKOV KATZ The Jerusalem Post 15 February 2012
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?ID=257983&R=R1

The Palestinian Authority has rejected an Israeli request to not arm its
policemen stationed at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus with AK-47 Kalashnikov
assault rifles, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Nevertheless, the IDF and PA recently reached new understandings regarding
security arrangements at the holy site.

Israel’s interest in improving coordination with PA security authorities
came after a Palestinian policeman shot dead Ben-Yosef near the tomb last
April. Livnat, the nephew of Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, had
entered Nablus without IDF authorization.

In recent months, the IDF and the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria
reached understandings with the PA, which has now stationed 10 police
officers at the tomb, a popular destination for Jewish worshipers.

The PA has also put in place strict rules of engagement, in an effort to
prevent shootings of Jews who occasionally sneak into the city to pray at
the tomb.

Due to the improvement in coordination, the IDF last week allowed a group of
Jews to enter Nablus to pray at the tomb without an Israeli military convoy
and under the sole supervision of PA security forces. The PA police met the
group at the Huwara checkpoint south of the city and escorted the worshipers
during their time in Nablus.

“This was a monumental event and is a demonstration of the improvement in
security coordination,” one defense source said.

The upgrade in Israeli-PA coordination at the tomb comes as peace talks
between the sides remain deadlocked. Last week, PA President Mahmoud Abbas
reiterated that he would not continue talks with Israel unless it imposed a
freeze on Jewish construction in east Jerusalem and in West Bank
settlements.

Despite the standoff, Israel is allowing the PA to expand its security
control to additional parts of the West Bank. Several weeks ago, the IDF
Central Command gave the PA permission to begin operating in Sebastia near
the Shavei Shomron settlement.

Sebastia is located in Area C, which under the Oslo Accords is under Israeli
civilian and military control. Permission for the PA to operate in Area C is
extremely rare due to the proximity to Israeli settlements.

Last month, the Post reported on an Israeli decision to ignore the
establishment of two PA police stations on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The
stations were established in territory marked as Area B, which according to
the Oslo Accords is under Israeli security control and Palestinian civilian
control.

The police stations in the Jerusalem-border villages were established
without Israeli government approval but the state is not demanding that the
PA remove them, since it prefers not to deploy Israeli police and military
forces in the villages.