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PA Seeks to Cut 30,000 Policemen from West Bank Security Forces

[Jerusalem Post] Khaled Abu Toameh - The PA security forces have some 80,000 on their payroll. However, nearly half of them don't report to work and actually have no real jobs. Agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israel in 1994 and 1995 limited the PA security forces to 30,000. The PA has an unusually high ratio of security forces to civilians. Under pressure from the U.S. and EU, Abbas recently agreed to reduce the number of policemen in the West Bank by half. However, previous attempts by the PA leadership to lay off thousands of policemen were called off for fear of a mutiny inside the Palestinian security services. According to the new PA plan, all policemen over the age of 45 would be forced into retirement. In addition, thousands whose names appear on the payroll of the security forces but don't do any work would be fired immediately.
2007-10-29 01:00:00
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