GAZA, 18 July 2004 — The Palestinian Authority faced a serious crisis yesterday after Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei submitted his resignation to President Yasser Arafat after complaining of chaos in Gaza following kidnappings by gunmen seeking removal of corrupt officials.
Arafat ordered a security shakeup in the territory and refused to accept Qorei’s resignation.
Qorei told his Cabinet he was firm in his decision to quit “and he will not withdraw” the resignation, said Jamal Shobaki, the minister for local government. Shobaki said the Cabinet will meet again Monday to discuss the political crisis. Arafat did not attend the Cabinet meeting.
“There is a crisis. There is a state of chaos in the security situation,” Qorei told reporters in Ramallah as he emerged from the meeting.
The resignation came against the background of a wave of kidnappings by militants in the Gaza Strip and a breakdown of authority by the security forces. Kidnappers, demanding an end to corruption in the security services, briefly held four French aid workers and two local officials, including the area’s police chief, on Friday. All were released unharmed.
But the abductions reflected a growing challenge to Arafat from militants trying to strengthen their position before Israel carries out a planned withdrawal of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip by the end of 2005.
In apparent response to the gunmen’s demands, Arafat fired the police commander, Ghazi Al-Jabali, appointed a cousin, Maj. Gen. Mussa Arafat, as overall security chief for Gaza, and announced its 12 security services would be combined into three.
Early yesterday, Arafat’s National Security Council declared a state of emergency and sent troops to protect government buildings and officials from militant factions.
There have been several shake-ups of the Palestinian security services since the outbreak of intifada nearly four years ago, but none lived up to the international community’s expectations for reform.
Egypt and the quartet of international peacemakers have been pressing Arafat to bring rival security factions under unified control. More than a dozen security branches now operate in the areas, often fighting each other.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah movement, rejected Mussa Arafat’s appointment, saying it would open the doors to “internal conflict” and calling him a symbol of corruption.
Israel seized on the discomfiture of the Palestinians. A senior official cited by public radio said the abductions again showed that “there is no Palestinian interlocutor for Israel to negotiate with,” for a comprehensive settlement or even for short-term security measures.
— Additional input from agencies
