[Imc-london-audio] today's show

[devlishmay at aktivix.org]

DEAR DOUGLAS 
I will have the interview with the director of the Nablus Women's Association
about honour killing, domestic violance in relation to the occupation for next
weeks show as I am it needs to be right because this is a very sensitve issue
and I do not want to rush it . 
This week I can offer: Palestine Today:
 http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/06/342657.html 
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/10106.php 
An interview: In a sign of increasing tensions between political leaders of
Hamas and Fateh, 2,500 Al Aqsa fighters were reorganized into a new Fateh
security force in the West Bank city of Jenin on saturday. The new force took
to the streets wearing black shirts carrying a picture of Yasser Arafat and
chanting slogans from the first intifada. In the city of Jenin the fighters
were showered with candy by two local residents, before Atta Abu Rumeileh gave
a speech in which he warned of attempts by Hamas to undermine Fateh. This
activation of a security force in Jenin comes just 18 days after Hamas created
it's security force in Gaza. No security force has ever been created parallel
to the Palestine National Security force in the West Bank however, and it's
role here is a matter of some confusion. Atta Abu Rumeileh, the head of the new
Security force in Jenin, explains: 

This force will not be a substitute for the police, or any other system of the
legal Palestinian National Authority. ?The security systems alone do their
tasks, and yesterday as we positioned this force we didn't perform any formal
tasks on the street at all. We didn't stop cars or arrest any people. We are a
force intended to assist the authority legal system whenever we are called for
duty by the general commander of the Palestinian forces in Jenin or the police
commander General. We will be soldiers who follow the orders of the police
commander. We started talks with President Mahmoud Abbas to enlist this force
within the Palestinian police system. 

Since the creation of the force on saturday, the west bank has already seen a
parallel Fateh force created in Tulkarem. I asked Atta Abu Rumeileh if he
thought this trend might lead to violence in the West Bank of the kind already
experienced in Gaza. 

We will not allow anyone to extend the crisis in Gaza Strip to the West Bank. We
will prevent any organization, Hamas, Fateh which we are members of, or any
other organization from causing trouble or crisis on the Palestinian street,
the street cannot bear any more trouble. This force is not an alternative to
the authority. This authority is the peoples' authority and we do respect it,
and respect its legitimate institutions, and we are in communication with local
leaders of Fateh in the West Bank to enable dispatching this force wherever
there are attempts to make troubles or create illegal forces in the West Bank.
Whenever they want to talk, they have to talk in one language and not claim
that the force in Gaza is legal, and this force in Jenin is illegal. We are a
force that does not claim to be legal, but will be legal as we become part of
the Palestinian police. We are a force to assist the law, order, and the
national project of independence, and national unity. 

While both Hamas and Israel have expressed alarm at the creation of these
forces, neither has released any public statements indicating that there will
be any retaliation. Still, what role these forces will come to play both in
palestinian politics and day to day life is a matter of some concern. Grisan
Andoni, Director of Bir Zeit University public relations office and 2006 Nobel
Peace Prize nominee shares his opinion on the new force, and contextualized
these developments within the larger history of palestinian political
oppositions.