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An Israeli soldier checks papers of Palestinians near
Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Security checks will be
mandatory in the safe passage route opening next week.

www.detrottjewshneWs.do

Y•.

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The Palestinian Authority has as
much interest as Israel in preventing
terrorists from exploiting` the safe pas-
sage. It wants the facility to succeed,
so that its people don't feel cut off
from family, friends and business part-
ners. It values any movement in the
peace process.
"Nobody can guarantee that there
will be no terrorism," Colonel Rashid
Abu-Shbak, deputy chief of the
Palestinian Preventive Security Force,
said in Gaza this week. "But we will
do our best to prevent any terrorist
actions. In the last year we have foiled
many operations, which had nothing
to do with the safe passage."
The Palestinian negotiators' main
concern was not to be seen by their
own people as agents of Israeli security.
They insisted, therefore, that
Palestinians applying to use the route
will deal only with Palestinian officials.
The permits will be issued by Israel,
but distributed by the Palestinians.

"We don't want (the permits) to
be weapons against the Palestinians,"
Abu-Shbak explained. "We want to
keep the dignity of the Palestinians.
They must be able to feel that they
are no longer living under occupa-
tion."
In the past, Israel used permits of
various kinds as a lever for persuading
Palestinians to keep their noses clean
— and even to inform on their neigh-
bors. "If the safe-passage permits are
going to be used to recruit spies or
humiliate our people," Abu-Shbak
asserted, we don't need them.
To reassure the Palestinians, Israel
has also agreed informally that it will
not arrest anyone it suddenly decides
is a security suspect while he is travel-
ing on the safe passage. As Minister
Ben-Ami put it, "Israel does not
intend, and did not conceive, the safe
passage as a trap or an ambush in
order to arrest those it did not suc-
ceed in getting by other means." 111

•

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10/8
1999

Detroit Jewish News

27