Visting Nablus, Globe & Mail reporter Carolynne Wheeler finds that Israel’s amnesty for Fatah gunmen does more to bolster gun sales than Mahmoud Abbas’ popularity:
More alarming, the optimism surrounding a program of amnesty for nearly 200 men wanted by Israel, mainly gunmen with the Martyrs Brigades, is also fading. The program, announced in July to much fanfare, required each man to surrender his weapons and remain in informal Palestinian Authority custody for three months on a promise of being removed from an Israeli wanted list.
But three months on, an al-Aqsa member waiting furtively on a street corner for a journalist says he is unconvinced that his name has been cleared, and is again packing a pistol on his hip. He is not the only one to rearm, he said.
See also this Haaretz profile of the town’s “Night Horsemen.”
