US - UK collusion raised in Jericho prison Israeli break in
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 3/15/2006

The Palestinian territories will be witnessing today a general strike which was called for by the Palestinian national groups, in protest of the Israeli forces breaking into the Areiha jail on Tuesday and the arrest of the secretary general of the People's Front For The Liberation Of Palestine and five of his colleagues and scores of Palestinians who were inside it.

The breaking in of the Israeli forces into Arieha jail backed by planes and tanks resulted in killing two Palestinians and injuring scores of Palestinians who were inside it.

The breaking in of the Israeli forces into Arieha jail backed by tanks and planes resulted in killing two Palestinians and injuring 35 others and the destruction of most parts of the detention.

Abu Ali Mustafa groups, the military wing of the People's Front threatened Israel to pay a dear price, stressing that it will respond strongly if Saadat is harmed, while member of the front's political bureau Kayed al-Ghoule said that what had happened was a result of "American- British" collaboration. The Americans and British were in charge of security at the facility to protect Saadat and the others under agreement drafted with the Palestinian authority.


Asked yesterday about the US position on this issues, in light of the fact that the US function was to protect the Palestinian prisoners, the US said it was motivated by protecting its personnel guards at the prison.

US Department Of State Adam Ereli said yesterday "The U.S. position is that the foremost issue was the safety and security of the monitors who were at the prison.  I'd refer you to a statement by British Foreign Secretary Straw which was presented to the House of Commons today in which he laid out our joint concerns, because as you know it was a joint British-U.S. monitoring mission, and the decisions and actions that were taken that led to the events of today.  You'll note in his statement that what we saw happen today in terms of withdrawing the mission really goes back to over two years ago, where we started -- where we began to raise with the Palestinian Authority our concerns that it was not doing enough to ensure the safety and security of the British and U.S. monitors who are in the prison pursuant to the Ramallah agreement of January 2002 to make sure that the prisoners -- six prisoners of concern at the prison were being held in a secure way.

So for at least the past two years, we've been telling the Palestinians, look, you've got obligations to provide for the security of these monitors, there are threats to their safety, we need you to take certain actions. We continued to press that at various points in the course of the last several years.  And finally it got to the point last week where we sent a letter to the Palestinians saying if you don't take really effective action, we're going to have to withdraw.  And we took that step, I think, reluctantly today but necessarily since, frankly, we had to do what was necessary to protect them.  In the wake of the actions following the withdrawal of the monitors, obviously we'll work closely with the Palestinians and the Israelis to ensure calm, to ensure restraint, and we'll continue to be doing that over the course of the next days as events develop. But I think the focus on this issue needs to be, first and foremost, on why we did what we did, which was to protect our people and because the Palestinians weren't able to do that...

what we wanted to happen was to be able to fulfill our mission, which was to implement the -- to do what we were supposed to do under the terms of the Ramallah accord.  We weren't able to do that.  That's unfortunate.  It's unfortunate for what it says about the ability to follow through on that agreement and it's unfortunate for what it says about security of prisoners, or the security provided prisoners, under Palestinian control.  These individuals are now apparently, if the news reports are correct, under Israeli control.

"We will continue to be in touch with both sides on the matter.  It's certainly not an outcome -- the events are certainly not what we would have wished for.  We would have wished for the Ramallah agreement to continue and the Israelis and Palestinians to have been able to, pursuant to the Ramallah agreement, to work out modalities for dealing with these guys, and they weren't able to do that."

Asked "you've probably seen the accusations, even from someone like the head of the Arab League.  But there's a suspicion there was some kind of collusion that somehow the American-British mission knew that this -- the Israelis planned this operation so the timing was done deliberately.  You got people out, knowing the Israelis were going in.  Is there any truth to that?"

Ereli said "Such accusations are baseless and ignore the facts, quite frankly.  And that's again why I think it's important to look at the statement for the record that the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office put before the House of Parliament, because that outlines for you in a very detailed chronological way what led up to today's action.  And it points out to you that this was -- that this has been an issue that we've been engaged with the Palestinians on quite seriously for some time. And so what happened today was the result of a -- frankly, a consistent and painstaking effort on our part and on the part of the British to work with the Palestinians to get them to hold up their end of the bargain.  And it was only after lots of trying and numerous representations at very senior levels that we came to the conclusion that they were going to be unable to fulfill those obligations and that, therefore, we had no choice but to take these steps again to protect the safety of our personnel..

"The Israeli -- the United States -- what the United States knew was what it was going to do.  And pursuant to the Ramallah agreement, we told the Palestinians, we told both sides what we were going to do.  It was in the March 8th letter.  And we took actions that we were responsible for.  I can't speak for other countries taking the actions that they took..

"what the United States knew was the Palestinians aren't living up to their obligations.  Our people are in danger.  We've got to pull them out."

Asked about when the US told the Israelis that the US was pulling its guards out," Ereli said "we told pursuant to the Ramallah and again, I'd refer you back to Foreign Secretary Straw's statement on all this.  We told the Israelis -- we told the Palestinians on March 8th that if they didn't take action, we'd have to withdraw our monitors.  We told -- again, pursuant to the Ramallah agreement -- the Israelis about the substance of that letter.  And then we didn't tell that we were withdrawing them until they've actually been withdrawn, which was today.. We told them after they had been withdrawn -- today."

The Israeli forces breaking into Areiha jail pushed the Palestinians to take the streets in massive demonstrations in Ramullah and other cities. Armed men broke into foreign headquarters and kidnapping operations were carried out for foreign citizens in Gaza and the West Bank.

The developments pushed the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cut his European tour he had started in Austria, at a time when Israel rejected a proposal by the Palestinian authority to halt its aggression in return for its commitment to the special arrangements concerning the detainees in Areiha jail, to that they would continue detention of Saadat and his colleagues.

Meantime, Egypt's foreign minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said the Israeli storming of the prison in Jericho is in violation of Palestinian -Israel previous agreement.

Previous Stories:
  Palestinians ask Red Cross help from Israel's attack on Jericho Prison   (3/14/2006)
  The Independent: Israelis warned of illegality of 1967 settlements   (3/11/2006)
  Israel wounds Palestinian family   (3/10/2006)
  World Council of Churches call for end of illegal Israeli occupation   (3/10/2006)
  Israel kills six Palestinians   (3/7/2006)
  Israeli occupation arrest campaigns   (3/3/2006)

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