300 Arab Police Officers Quit Israel Force in Protest

Three hundred Arab police officers in the West Bank--more than half the Palestinian members of the force--submitted their resignations today to protest Israeli occupation of the territory.

The mass resignations came a day after the underground leadership of a 13-week-old Palestinian uprising, in a leaflet in the name of the Palestine Liberation Organization, warned all Palestinians serving the Israeli police to resign.

Two alleged collaborators have been killed by fellow Arabs, one of them a policeman.

An army spokesman confirmed that at least 60 Arab policemen had quit in the Judea district, the area of the West Bank south of Jerusalem.

Mustafa Adani, 44, said he resigned after 25 years on the force along with “almost all the police in the Bethlehem station, about 50 to 55. The only ones who didn’t quit were those who didn’t know about the orders.”

There was no similar group action in Samaria--the northern part of the West Bank--or the Gaza Strip, although a handful of Palestinian police officers had quit in each area during the week, police sources said.

A senior military official said the resignations would have “a negative impact on other Palestinians who work with Israel in the territories. It is not very encouraging.”