Yasser Arafat's effort to overhaul his security forces under pressure from Washington was mired in confusion Thursday as mystery surrounded the fate of his powerful West Bank security chief.
A high-level bid to remove Colonel Jibril Rajoub, considered one of the Palestinian president's potential successors, appeared to be in the works, although Rajoub denied such reports as "lies and baseless stories."
The Palestinian infighting flared as Israel announced it was easing some of the restrictions clamped on West Bank cities reoccupied by its army in recent weeks following back-to-back Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 26 Israelis.
Whatever the outcome of the Palestinian power struggle, it was unlikely to be enough to mollify Arafat's U.S. critics.
In an interview with Reuters Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell reasserted Washington's position it would no longer deal with Arafat and said U.S. officials had embarked on a diplomatic effort to bring reluctant Europeans on board.
President Bush said last month that no move would be made toward creating a Palestinian state unless Palestinians elected new leaders "uncompromised by terror" and implemented sweeping democratic reforms.
Arafat responded last week by calling elections for January and announcing an overhaul of Palestinian institutions, including the multiple security services Israel has blamed for failing to stop attacks that have killed scores of Israelis.
While U.S. and Israeli officials have voiced skepticism about Arafat's plans, ordinary Palestinians -- even those who complain of corruption and mismanagement in the Palestinian Authority -- have rallied to support him.
In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians chanted slogans, carried banners and fired guns in the air at a rally organized to protest Bush's call to replace him.
"Our rifles will protect our right of free choice and not Bush's dictates," one militant said. "Our choice is Arafat."
But Gaza was also the scene of fresh unrest. Palestinian security forces fired at protesters who attacked a police station with rocks and pipe bombs, demanding the execution of a suspected collaborator with Israel.
Hospital officials said 21 people, including seven policemen, were wounded in the violence in Rafah refugee camp.
RAJOUB DENIES HE'S BEEN DISMISSED
In the West Bank, many Palestinians seemed as concerned about the fate of one of their most prominent leaders as they were about their own plight under Israeli guns.
Rajoub, head of preventive security in the West Bank, denied news reports that he had been summarily dismissed by Arafat. "I think someone is trying to harm the whole security services and leak such lies and baseless stories," he told Reuters.
Palestinian Authority sources said Arafat had received a recommendation from his new interior minister, Abdel-Razzak al-Yahya, to fire Rajoub as part of a security shakeup but was reluctant to act.
Rajoub, who commands the loyalty of thousands of security men but recently has had rocky relations with Arafat, said he would step aside if the Palestinian leader ordered him to do so. He cannot be removed without a presidential decree.
"It's clear that Arafat would prefer not to get involved," said one source who declined to predict what would happen next.
EASING OF WEST BANK CURFEWS
Israel's security cabinet approved a plan Wednesday to gradually end daytime curfews that have locked hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in their homes in West Bank cities reoccupied by the Israeli army.
"We can't punish an entire people," Israel's dovish foreign minister, Shimon Peres, was quoted as telling the cabinet.
Israel reoccupied Nablus, Tulkarm, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Jenin and Hebron after two suicide bombings in Jerusalem last month.
Israeli forces will continue to keep 700,000 Palestinians confined to their houses at night. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed to hold on to Palestinian-ruled areas as long as attacks on Israelis continue.
Palestinian cabinet member Saeb Erekat dismissed the Israeli move as a ploy to "sustain the occupation and sustain the collective punishment of 3.3 million Palestinians."
In Washington, Powell told Reuters he would soon meet fellow members of a "quartet" of Middle East peacemakers, and Arab leaders, for fresh talks aimed at ending 21 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
At least 1,431 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the uprising against Israeli occupation began.
(China Daily July 5, 2002)
