Palestinian Security Services
| Palestinian Security Services | |
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| خدمات الأمن الفلسطينية | |
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| Founded | 1994 |
| Service branches |
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The Palestinian Security Services (PSS) are the armed forces and intelligence agencies of the State of Palestine. They comprise several institutions, notably the Security Forces and the Police. The President of the Palestinian National Authority is Commander-in-Chief of the Palestinian Forces.
The State of Palestine has no land army, nor an air force or a navy. The Palestinian Security Services (PSS, not to confuse with Preventive Security Service) do not dispose over heavy weapons and advanced military equipment like tanks.
In the so-called Israeli–Palestinian peace process, Israel has consistently demanded that a Palestinian state will always be demilitarised and thus will never have an army. Israeli negotiators demanded to keep Israeli troops in the West Bank, to maintain control of Palestinian airspace, and to dictate exactly what weapons could and could not be purchased by the Palestinian security forces. In June 2009 at Bar-Ilan University, Benyamin Netanyahu said: ″We cannot be expected to agree to a Palestinian state without ensuring that it is demilitarised,″
Article XII of the Oslo II Accord states:
″In order to guarantee public order and internal security for the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the [Palestinian] Council shall establish a strong police force as set out in Article XIV below. Israel shall continue to carry the responsibility for defense against external threats, including the responsibility for protecting the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, and for defense against external threats from the sea and from the air, as well as the responsibility for overall security of Israelis and Settlements, for the purpose of safeguarding their internal security and public order, and will have all the powers to take the steps necessary to meet this responsibility.″
Article II of Annex I stipulates:
″The Palestinian Police is the only Palestinian security authority.″
The Annex allows a security force limited to six branches:
Following the Oslo Accords, the number of separate security forces, all under exclusive control of President Arafat, had been grown considerably. Based on the 1994 Cairo Agreement, "a strong police force" was formed which, however, steadily grew far beyond the agreed numbers, to include soldiers and returnees from the diaspora. By 1996, the PA had more than 35,000 security officers on the payroll. Arafat ruled the forces in an authoritarian divide-to-rule manner, not devoid of corruption and nepotism.
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