At least, I hope so.
Ramallah. 13 May (AKI) - Palestinian Authority (PA) officials on Friday collected assault rifles and other weapons handed over by 110 Palestinian militants in Jericho and Tulkarem, as part of a campaign encouraging the voluntary disarmament of Palestinian groups. "Their case is now closed," the official in charge of the operation, Abdul Fattah Hamayel, told the DPA news agency. Hamayel said the men had also signed a document in which they promised not to carry out attacks against Israeli targets.
The militants will now be recruited into the PA's police force, which means they will soon be carrying arms again, but this time with the permission of the authorities, Hamayel said.
Anyway, this is the third or fourth time that the PA has supposedly collected these weapons. It always seems to turn out that they never quite did, though.
[April 19, 2005] JERUSALEM - Palestinian officials have collected weapons from Palestinian fugitives in two towns turned over to their control, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday.
In a news conference for Israeli media, Abbas said the operation took place in Jericho and Tulkarem, but militants said they have not handed in all their arms.
And indeed they hadn't. A few weeks later (May 5th), there was this (from the very un-balanced "IMEMC News"):
The Palestinian Authority is proceding in its plan to disarm the resistance groups to outdate Israeli pretext used to delay the handover of Palestinian cities to the PA.
Chief of the Israeli military intelligence colonel Aharon Farkash said on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority has collected the weapons of the Palestinian resistance men wanted by Israel in Jericho.
Farkash told the Israel Radio that the PA is currently preparing to do the same in the West bank city of Tulkarem, "as they pledged to do."
The Palestinian Authority has decided few days ago to allow two days for all the resistance men in these two cities to hand in their weapons to the PA security forces.
So have they or haven't they? And does it matter since they're shortly to be re-armed in any event? With the "permission of the authorities," of course.
Update: No need to re-arm. If they sign a "pledge," they just get to keep the weapons they had. From today's (Sunday, May 15) Ha'aretz:
Meanwhile, the PA Interior Ministry has begun to collect weapons from wanted Fatah members in Jericho and Tul Karm. The men, most of whom had served in the Palestinian police or security branches, have begun to report to their units and sign declarations promising they would not become involved in terrorism or the sale of weapons or ammunition, and that they would accept the authority of their superiors. They also pledged not to erase serial numbers on the weapons, which Israel has in its records.
Between five and ten men reportedly turned in their weapons in Tul Karm out of a list of 50 wanted men. Forty-seven of the 50 have signed pledges not to be involved in terror.
