Palestinian police take over Bethlehem as road map moves ahead

WITH sirens blaring, Palestinian police yesterday moved into the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the second area handed over by Israel under a US-backed Mideast peace plan.

Residents clapped as a column of police in dark blue uniforms marched from their barracks toward the centre of town.

Paving the way for the handover, Israeli troops withdrew from part of the northern Gaza Strip last Sunday, in line with the "road map" peace plan announced by US President George W Bush at a June 4 Mideast summit.

The move came a day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders promised painful concessions, furthering hopes of ending three years of bloodshed.

Speaking in front of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office before their summit on Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said the turnover of Bethlehem and Gaza would be "followed by pullbacks from the rest of the cities and towns and Palestinian refugee camps".

Reminders of the violence remained, though, as police checked vehicles and drivers, closing off main highways in the centre of Israel and causing huge traffic jams during yesterday evening's rush hour.

Before taking charge of Bethlehem, laughing Palestinian police tried on their uniforms and, nearby, recruits in green camouflage and bright red berets practised marching in a courtyard.

"Today, we're restoring our leadership in one city in this land," their commander, Hani Deek, said. "I hope the rest will soon follow."

However, residents didn't expect the handover to change much as long as Bethlehem remained hedged in by Israeli checkpoints.

"They are making fools out of us," said Jaudat Joude, who has been unable to reach his job at a Jerusalem welding factory since the uprising began almost three years ago.

"If you want to make some serious changes, open the roads, remove the checkpoints and let people in to work. Then maybe we can believe that the Israelis have good intentions."

Israeli forces have occupied Bethlehem several times during nearly three years of fighting, once holding the Church of the Nativity under siege for a month, demanding surrender of Palestinian gunmen who had fled inside the shrine that marks the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

After a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus on November 21, carried out by a Palestinian from Bethlehem, soldiers went back in and stayed.

On Tuesday, senior commanders met and worked out the details of the handover.

In a statement, the military said Israel would be in charge of security of Israelis, including settlers in nearby villages, while Palestinian security forces committed to preventing "terrorist attacks in the areas under their responsibility".

A similar formula held in Gaza, where Israeli troops pulled out late on Sunday.

The Tuesday summit was the first time the two leaders spoke before reporters and cameras at a Jerusalem summit, their third in six weeks.

The atmosphere was cordial.

"Even if we are required to make painful compromises, I will be willing to make them for the sake of true peace a peace for generations, the peace that we all yearn for," Mr Sharon said.

Mr Abbas responded in kind: "Enough suffering, enough death, enough pain. Let us stride forward with courage and without hesitation to the future we all deserve."