In 2013, the PA's security budget was almost $1 billion, comprising 28 percent of the total budget. The large defense budget has been criticized because it is seen as part of the internal oppression system, as well as maintaining the crumbling Fatah movement’s hegemony and the status quo with Israel. Some 65,000 of the PA’s civil servants (41%) were registered as defense workers; 34,000 were not Hamas government employees in Gaza.<ref>[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zdI98YnaluwJ:www.haaretz.com/israel-news/palestinian-budget-reflects-pa-s-dependence-on-israel-u-s.premium-1.512691+&cd=1 ''Palestinian Budget Reflects PA's Dependence on Israel, U.S.'']. Amira Hass, Haaretz, 31 March 2013 (premium)</ref>
In 2013, the PA's security budget was almost $1 billion, comprising 28 percent of the total budget. The large defense budget has been criticized because it is seen as part of the internal oppression system, as well as maintaining the crumbling Fatah movement’s hegemony and the status quo with Israel. Some 65,000 of the PA’s civil servants (41%) were registered as defense workers; 34,000 were not Hamas government employees in Gaza.<ref>[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zdI98YnaluwJ:www.haaretz.com/israel-news/palestinian-budget-reflects-pa-s-dependence-on-israel-u-s.premium-1.512691+&cd=1 ''Palestinian Budget Reflects PA's Dependence on Israel, U.S.'']. Amira Hass, Haaretz, 31 March 2013 (premium)</ref>
As of November 2014, there were about 17,000 military employees in Gaza, including policemen, who were hired by Hamas since June 2007. They were still considered illegitimate by the [[Palestinian unity government of 2014]] and therefore not payed.<ref>[http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/11/gaza-hamas-civil-servants-unpaid-wages.html ''Gaza’s civil servants strike over unpaid wages'']. Al-Monitor, 19 November 2014</ref>
==Tasks==
==Tasks==
Revision as of 12:18, 21 November 2015
Palestinian police in Bethlehem, 2007
The Palestinian Security Services (PPS) are the armed forces and intelligence agencies of the State of Palestine. They comprise several institutions, notably the Security Forces and the police. The President of the Palestinian National Authority is Commander-in-Chief of the Palestinian Forces.[1] Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the PPS are the Palestinian partner in the security cooperation with Israel.
Background
The State of Palestine has no land army, nor an air force or a navy. The Palestinian Security Services do not dispose over heavy weapons and advanced military equipment like tanks.
In the so-called Israeli–Palestinian peace process, Israel has consistently demanded that a Palestinian state will always be demilitarised and thus will never has an army. Israeli negotiators demanded to keep Israeli troops in the West Bank, to maintain control of Palestinian airspace, and to dictate exactly what weapons could and could not be purchased by the Palestinian security forces.[2] In June 2009 at Bar-Ilan University, Benyamin Netanyahu said: ″We cannot be expected to agree to a Palestinian state without ensuring that it is demilitarised,″[2]
Article XII of the Oslo II Accord states: ″In order to guarantee public order and internal security for the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the [Palestinian] Council shall establish a strong police force as set out in Article XIV below. Israel shall continue to carry the responsibility for defense against external threats, including the responsibility for protecting the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, and for defense against external threats from the sea and from the air, as well as the responsibility for overall security of Israelis and Settlements, for the purpose of safeguarding their internal security and public order, and will have all the powers to take the steps necessary to meet this responsibility.″ Article II of Annex I stipulates: ″The Palestinian Police is the only Palestinian security authority.″[3]
Organization
Presidential Guard, 2008
In 2003, President Yasser Arafat established a National Security Council (NSC) by presidential decree, existing of a 14-member Council that would supervise all the security organs. The Palestinian Authority's security authority was divided between government and the NSC. The Interior Minister would be in charge of administrative and civilian affairs, while the NSC, headed by the President, was responsible for security affairs.[1]
2005 reform
After his election as President of the Palestinian National Authority in January 2005, President Mahmoud Abbas appointed Nasser Yousef his security chief. On 14 April 2005, the President restructured the Palestinian Security Services. The previously existing 12 security divisions were merged into three general branches: National Security, Interior, and Intelligence. Abbas made Nasser Yousef head of the three main security institutions. With that, the responsibilities of Yousef, who was appointed Interior Minister two months earlier, were considerably expanded.[4] On 22 April, Abbas retired head of the Gaza national security forces Moussa Arafat and replaced him with Suleiman Heles; head of the Gaza General Intelligence Amin al-Hindi was replaced by Tareq Abu Rajab. Alaa Husni was appointed head of the Palestinian police, while further 1,150 Palestinian security officials were also retired. On 14 April 2005, Abbas named Rashid Abu Shbak as the new head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service.[4]
From September 2005, the NSC was headed by President and Prime Minister, with as members the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD), the Secretary General of the Presidency, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Civil Affairs, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Security Advisor.[1]
Internal power struggle
After Hamas had won the 2006 parliamentary elections, power struggles over the security services between the Hamas-led PA Government and the presidency emerged.
In February 2006, before Hamas could form a PA government, President Abbas appointed the Fatah-affiliated Abu Shbak head of the PSS.[5] On 6 April 2006, one week after Hamas had formed its first PA government, Abbas appointed Rashid Abu Shbak head of the three security agencies, including the Preventive Security Service, formally under the control of Interior Minister Said Seyam, who had succeeded Abbas' confidant Nasser Yousef as Interior Minister in the new PA government. This fueled further rivalry between Hamas and Abbas.[6]
In response to Abbas' decision to take control over the PA security forces away from the Hamas-led government, the Government decided to form its own 3,000 manned security force in the Gaza Strip, the paramilitary Executive Force.[7][1] On 17 May 2006, the first men were deployed.[8] In January 2007, Abbas outlawed the Interior Ministry's police force. The Ministry resistet Abbas' order that its meanwhile 6,000 members of the Executive Force be incorporated into the security apparatus loyal to the president's Fatah movement.[9] Instead, Hamas announced plans to double the size of its force to 12,000 men.[10] Eventually, it ended in Fatah–Hamas battle in Gaza in June 2007. On 18 June 2007, Abbas dissolved the National Security Council, after having dissolved the Hamas-led PA Government.[11]
Budget and strength
In 2013, the PA's security budget was almost $1 billion, comprising 28 percent of the total budget. The large defense budget has been criticized because it is seen as part of the internal oppression system, as well as maintaining the crumbling Fatah movement’s hegemony and the status quo with Israel. Some 65,000 of the PA’s civil servants (41%) were registered as defense workers; 34,000 were not Hamas government employees in Gaza.[12]
As of November 2014, there were about 17,000 military employees in Gaza, including policemen, who were hired by Hamas since June 2007. They were still considered illegitimate by the Palestinian unity government of 2014 and therefore not payed.[13]
Tasks
The 2003 Amended Basic Law (Article 84) states:
"The Security Forces and the Police are regular forces. They are the armed forces in the country. Their functions are limited to defending the country, serving the people, protecting society and maintaining public order, security and public morals."[14]
The National Security Forces and the Presidential Guard are the PA's paramilitary forces, to some extend resembling an army. Before the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, the PA maintained a small Coast Guard, using 5 motorboats equipped with machine guns along the Gazan seacoast. Before Israel destroyed the Gazan airport, there was also a small Aerial Police.[1]
Police tasks are performed by the Civil Police Force, known as the Blue Police for its uniform color. Additionally, there are some other small civil forces. The Preventive Security Force is a large unit of the PA's intelligence. The intelligence division is divided into General Intelligence (Mukhabarat), Military Intelligence (Istikhbarat) and Military Police Intelligence.[1]
Security cooperation between Israel and Palestine
Emblem of the General Intelligence
Security cooperation between Israel and Palestine is the cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army. It involves the sharing of intelligence between the two parties. The cooperation originates from the 1993 Oslo I Accord.[15]
Critics say that the agreement was very much focused on creating a structure which would primarily ensure the security of Israel. Leaked documents in the Palestine Papers revealed that the PA was willing to go as far as to kill its own people in order to prove that it was establishing law and order in territories under its control.[15] Mazin Qumsiyeh, a civil society leader in Bethlehem, said the Oslo accords had effectively turned the PA into a ″security sub-contractor″, and ″The job of the Palestinian security forces is to enforce the occupation on Israel’s behalf″.[16]
On numerous occasions, President Abbas has threatened to end the security cooperation to show firmness to end the Israeli occupation, however without ever taking concrete steps. In October 2014, Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh calculated that Abbas had used the thread 58 times.[15]
Criticism
Palestinian security forces has been criticized for suppressing its own people and crushing the resistance to the Israeli occupation. They target the armed resistance as well as political opposition and protesters.[17] In 2008, the head of the Palestinian Civil Police presented the Israelis with a laundry list of actions taken by the PA against Hamas. In the West Bank, Hamas members are frequently arrested, as were students supporting Hamas.[15] In September 2015, security forces dispersed a march of protesters who demonstrated against excessive use of force by PA security forces against demonstrators.[18][19]
^Hamas: From Resistance to Government. Paola Caridi, Seven Stories Press, 2012. [Rashid] "Abu Shbak became a Fatah member in 1971... He returned in 1994, upon installment of the PNA and became Mohammed Dahlan's deputy in the Gaza Preventative Security Force, of which he took charge in 2002. In April 2005, he began his rise to the very top of the security services when Abu Mazen appointed him head of the Preventative Security Force in the West Bank and Gaza. On February, 20, 2006, he was appointed head of the security services.
^Presidential Guard, 2008cutive-Force Hamas to expand ′Executive Force′. Jerusalem Post, 21 December 2006 "The Executive Force, which was established a few months ago by Interior Minister Said Siam of Hamas, today includes nearly 3,000 members."
.jpg)
