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JERICHO, Sept 17: The start of CIA-led training for Palestinian police was marred by recriminations on Tuesday when Israel blocked attendance by dozens of security men it has accused of involvement in attacks on Israelis.
The course, launched on Monday and run by experts from the United States, Egypt and Jordan, was the first concrete step in an international push to overhaul Palestinian security forces as part of reforms seen as a condition to renew peace talks.
Diplomats said classroom lessons at a guarded but nearly empty hotel-casino in the West Bank would deal with techniques for stopping suicide bombings that have killed scores of Israelis in a two-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation.
But some Palestinian officials charged that Israel was trying to undermine the reform effort, which President Yasser Arafat launched earlier this year under heavy US pressure.
Israel, which has joined the call for sweeping reforms, barred several dozen security and intelligence officers from travelling from the Gaza Strip to Jericho for the course.
“They want to prove their claim that the Palestinians are not capable of doing anything, especially of achieving security and peace,” Zuhair al-Manasra, head of West Bank Preventive Security, told reporters in Jericho. “The Israeli government and the Israeli army are actually to blame.”
BIBLICAL TOWN ENCIRCLED: The two-week course, led by experts from the US Central Intelligence Agency and attended by 40 Palestinian officers, followed a call by Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel-Razzak al-Yahya this month for a complete end to attacks on Israelis.
Officials withheld details about the training.
Jericho was chosen because it is the only major West Bank city or town which was not reoccupied by Israel troops in June following a wave of suicide attacks in the Jewish state.
But Jericho’s tourist trade has dried up as the conflict has scared visitors away from the sun-parched, biblical town.
Palestinian security men armed with assault rifles stood guard on the driveway to the Hotel Inter-Continental and the shuttered Oasis Casino, preventing journalists from approaching.
Down the road, Palestinians queued in front of a fortified Israeli army checkpoint, hoping soldiers would let them pass. The Israeli army has the town encircled. Israeli officials called the course a positive step.
But he said the test would be whether Palestinian security forces take real steps to rein in militants.
Paul Patin, a spokesman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv, said: “We remain committed to helping the parties in any way we can to restore active security cooperation.”—Reuters
