JerPost

Arafat orders Islamic Jihad leader freed after Jenin riots By Lamia Lahoud, Arieh O'Sullivan, and Herb Keinon

JERUSALEM (November 15) - Senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Mahmoud Tawalbi was arrested yesterday by Palestinian police, then ordered released by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat after riots broke out in Jenin.

A senior PA source said the arrest had not been cleared with Arafat.

PA security agents, whom the source said were operating under West Bank Preventive Security Service chief Jibril Rajoub's orders, arrested Tawalbi, known as "Nursi," who tops Israel's most wanted list.

About 3,000 Palestinians protesting the arrest then surrounded the governor's headquarters, where the Preventive Security Service has its offices. Gunmen fired rifles and threw grenades at the compound and burned cars in the city. Some protesters even threatened to blow up the compound should the PA refuse to release Tawalbi.

Islamic Jihad leaders said Palestinian policemen plucked Tawalbi, 23, off a Jenin street and, following the protests, whisked him to a prison in Nablus.

However, Arafat ordered him released following the violent confrontations between hundreds of Palestinians and Palestinian policemen. The source said the riots were organized by Islamic Jihad and sponsored by "the intifada leadership."

Two Palestinians, including a member of the security forces, were wounded, witnesses said. Senior PA security officials negotiated with the gunmen to try to disperse the crowd.

"We are discussing a formula to calm the situation," a senior security official told Reuters. He said Tawalbi would not be released.

"The PA has the right to arrest lawbreakers and won't give in," he said.

Israel had asked the PA to arrest Tawalbi, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp, in an attempt to prevent terrorist attacks being planned by him, Israeli security sources had said.

Tawalbi was behind the July 16 bombing near the Binyamina train station in which two people were killed and eight wounded. He was also behind an attempted bombing in Haifa on July 22, foiled when security forces managed to arrest his brother, Murad, who was supposed to have committed suicide.

Tawalbi was also behind the August 2 car bombing in Beit She'an. No one was hurt in that attack.

Israeli security officials said Tawalbi was one of the main forces in the Islamic Jihad behind attacks in Samaria.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Ra'anan Gissin reacted to the reports of the arrest, and the anger it triggered in Jenin, by saying that the government will wait to see if this time he remains behind bars.

"They have arrested him several times and then let him go through a revolving door," Gissin said. "This time we will wait and see whether this is just a cosmetic measure taken to please the US, or whether it is the real thing."

Gissin said that the IDF has been unable to withdraw from areas around Jenin because the city is controlled by Islamic Jihad groups that continue to produce one suicide bomber after the next.

He said that if this time the PA is serious about the arrest, and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat continues to arrest terrorists, "we will act accordingly" and withdraw from the city.

The IDF moved into areas around six major Palestinian cities following the assassination of tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi last month, and has since withdrawn from all of them except for Tulkarm and Jenin.

Several days ago, Arafat ordered the arrest of 28 Palestinians connected with a group of terrorists who continue to fire mortars at settlements in the Gaza Strip.

The PA source said the arrest was a sign that Arafat is beginning to take action against terrorists, as demanded by the US and the UN Security Council. Arafat would not face opposition from the majority of the population for taking such measures, as long as he can show hope for a some political progress, the source said.

"The majority of the people is fed up and is asking us to end this crazy situation," he added.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2001