MIDDLE EAST: Saying there was nothing he could do to counter the growing chaos in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Yasser Arafat's justice minister submitted his resignation at the weekend.
"I feel that my position has been marginalised because many crimes and offences are going unpunished," said the minister, Nahed al-Rayes. While he stressed that he maintained his loyalty to Mr Arafat, he acknowledged that he had clashed with the PA president over the role of the attorney-general, who he wanted under his jurisdiction rather than that of Mr Arafat. The PA president is also reported to have set up several new mechanisms in recent months that have essentially stripped authority from the justice ministry and have undermined efforts to reform the justice system.
Mr al-Rayes's sense of helplessness comes as major cities in both Gaza and the West Bank see frequent marches and demonstrations against alleged corruption in the PA, and after several incidents in which groups of gunmen have ransacked and torched PA offices, as well as at least two recent cases in which PA ministers and legislators have had meetings disrupted by the arrival of Palestinian gunmen.
Concern over the slide toward anarchy in PA areas has prompted the PA Prime Minister, Mr Ahmed Korei, to ask Israel for permission for PA policemen to carry light arms in major West Bank cities. The Israeli government has agreed in principle to the request, despite bitter criticism from rightist politicians who fear the weapons may be used against Israeli soldiers, although approval for the arming of the policemen is to be given on a case-by-case basis.
Despite the PA tensions, Israel's Shin Bet security service chief, Mr Avi Dichter, told the Israeli cabinet yesterday that Mr Arafat had managed to subdue what amounted to a power struggle against him, led by his former Gaza security chief, Mr Mohammad Dahlan, over the past few weeks.
Mr Dichter is reported to have said that Mr Arafat was behind an attack, on July 20th, on one of his most prominent domestic critics, the former PA minister for parliamentary affairs, Mr Nabil Amr. Mr Amr was badly wounded when shot in the leg in Ramallah soon after he had given a television interview criticising Mr Arafat's performance. The idea, Mr Dichter is quoted as having claimed, was that Mr Amr would be assassinated, as a warning to other critics and opponents.
Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is again pledging to dismantle dozens of illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank. US officials are becoming increasingly frustrated with Mr Sharon over the issue, but aides to the prime minister now say that many of the estimated 80-plus outposts - some two dozen of which have been established since Mr Sharon became prime minister three years ago - will be evacuated before the November US presidential elections.
Israel fired two helicopter missiles into the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, Palestinian witnesses said. They said one missile hit a power transformer, causing a blackout in the camp. The other missile landed on the edge of Rafah near the border with Egypt, they said.