Hevron Jewish community leaders have pleaded with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a letter to scrap plans to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to deploy its American-trained and armed security forces in the city. More than 150 PA policemen are undergoing training at an American base in Jordan before being transferred to Hevron, home to the Cave of the Patriarchs, and the PA also plans to deploy several hundred others.

 

The letter pointed out that a PA policeman murdered two Jews from the area a year ago.

 

"We were astounded and stunned to learn of plans to transfer security of the city of Hevron to the Fatah and Tanzim terrorists, a.k.a. 'the Palestinian Authority,'" the leaders wrote Defense Minister Barak. Among the signatories were American-born Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, Kiryat Arab-Hevron Rabbi Dov Lior and reserve IDF Colonels Moshe Hagar and Ron Shechner.

 

They warned the government that "similar actions in the past always led to terrible bloodshed" and reminded the Defense Minster of the murder of infant ShalhavetPass by an Arab who was trained by a PA-aligned terrorist.

 

The letter also recalled the multiple terrorist attacks on a Friday night that killed 12 IDF soldiers and civilian rescue team members on the Worshippers' Path to the Cave.

 

"Transfer of security responsibility into the hands of Fatah terrorists will endanger the lives of thousands in the Hevron region, of hundreds of thousands who arrive to visit the holy sites in the city of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and the lives of all the citizens of Israel wherever they are," they stated in the letter.

 

The PA has claimed that it needs armed police in the city to stop Hamas's growing influence.