(Los Angeles Times) Laura King - Abu Salim, an earnest young Palestinian police sergeant, says he joined the force to protect and serve his people. His elder brother is a fugitive member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian militant group responsible for hundreds of deadly attacks against Israelis. Abu Salim says that if he were called upon to arrest his sibling or other wanted men, he would refuse. The Palestinian security forces were conceived in the 1990s as a means of providing respectable employment to young street fighters who had cut their teeth in the first Palestinian uprising, from 1987 to 1993. "All these promises about what the Palestinian forces can do are like a check that can bounce at any moment," said David Hacham, an Israeli reserve colonel who advises the government on Palestinian issues.
2005-01-24 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive