RAMALLAH, West Bank, 24 April — Citizens of Ramallah pitched in yesterday to sweep away rubble and refuse left by Israel’s destructive reoccupation.
Ayoub Rabah, mayor of the Palestinians’ interim political and commercial capital in the West Bank, said his priority was to remove tons of debris and trash threatening public health.
But police chief Izzat Mansour told Reuters public order hung on a knife edge after the seizure of most of his men’s firearms and patrol cars. “We lost 70 percent of our weapons and most of our vehicles and uniforms, even though we were not involved in ambushes against the Israelis,” he said, alluding to more than 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israel says some members of the Palestinian security forces moonlighted as fighters and some units — such as Force 17, President Yasser Arafat’s elite guard — have been directly involved in organizing and carrying out attacks.
“We are working with modest means to restore order and guarantee security for the citizens,” Mansour said.
A high-ranking security official in the Palestinian Authority said it would not be able to maintain order as prescribed in interim deals with Israel for several months.
Mansour’s comments raised the possibility of a security vacuum from which a new group of bombers could emerge. “We will not be able to deliver on our commitments in the coming period after the destruction of our security apparatus and Israel will be held responsible,” said Muhammad Dahlan, who is the head of Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip. “We need a period of two to three months to rehabilitate our security institutions,” the security chief told Reuters.
The few policeman who reappeared in downtown Ramallah yesterday had no guns or patrol cars, aside from one battered jeep which they said they had saved from the Israeli Army by hiding it in a park.
Scores of volunteers in orange smocks went to work sweeping away dust and carting off slabs of concrete and masonry and fragments of traffic barriers — all damaged by Israeli armor.
Normally aggressive drivers, including the ubiquitous big yellow taxis, stopped politely in central roundabouts to allow the cleaning brigades, often joined by passersby, to get on with their task.
“This is our community spirit. We’re determined to clean away all signs of the Israeli presence. Hopefully they won’t ever come back but if they do we’ll clean up again and again,” said Sawsan Khader, a Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer. “We are only making a start in trying to return Ramallah to some normalcy. The Israelis will never break our morale,” said Hassan Sharkawi, the Red Crescent’s emergency response coordinator, who was also wielding a broom.
“I put aside my work as a pharmacist today to come down here to do my bit to bring Ramallah back from the dead,” said Rana Abu Elhommos. “But I’m worried about law and order. There’s no one to enforce it.” Ahmed Mafoul, a Palestinian policeman surveying the scene, said the police force had been so ravaged by the Israelis that it would have to depend on “basic goodwill and restraint” of citizenry to preserve order in the immediate future. “It almost feels like the very beginning in 1994 (dawn of Palestinian self-rule), when we had to create a security structure from scratch,” Mafoul said. “But we have nothing to lose now. We are determine to persevere for our independence.”
