Palestinian Authority’s New Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has refused Israeli protection and insists he will travel as he pleases in “Area C,” which supposedly is under full Israeli control.
Hamdallah, who is replacing Salam Fayyad, created diplomatic crisis by his refusal to allow Israeli protection, according to the Gulf News website.
“We do not know how to provide the Palestinian premier with protection against the ‘price tag’ attacks and we are not sure about the way the Israeli colonists would act if the premier’s car was spotted,” a senior security officer was reported as saying. The quote obviously was altered by Gulf News because although Jews in Judea and Samaria frequently are called “settlers,” virtually no one calls them “colonists.”