Just a few weeks after Ma’ariv published my colleague Ben Caspit’s exclusive story about Arafat’s instructions to kill settlers, the Arabic translation of the story was placed on the desk of Mohammed Dahlan, commander of the Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip. And he, how could he not, got angry.

“I don’t even want to respond to that. It is not connected to me. If you, at the newspaper, think that Arafat reprimanded me for trying to arrest Abdullah Shami, whereas at the time I was with Arafat in Portugal, then write whatever you want. Anyway you write only what Sharon wants you to write.”

Question: And yet, I am asking whether Arafat gave instructions to kill settlers?

“Kill? There is no such thing. Only in your dreams. The chairman’s instructions about the cease-fire are very clear and have not changed.”

Question: But it is enough for people among you to understand from Arafat that it is permissible to attack settlers.

“They do not have to understand anything at all. Our people do not need instructions from the chairman. As soon as they see the GSS and IDF killing and abducting people, they don’t care about the chairman’s instructions. They want to take revenge.”

Question: But you have to admit that the settlers have become your main target.

“Whoever wants to take revenge does not distinguish between a settler and a non-settler, and I am no longer trying to persuade the settlers or the people in Israel. For six years I tried to convince you and it didn’t help. Now the entire people in Israel wants war. You want war? All right then. What can we do, then?”

Question: Do you really believe that all the people in Israel want war?

“Most of the people in Israel. Maybe they don’t want a world war, but they treat the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority as an enemy.”

Question: Is it perhaps because most of the Palestinian people view the Israelis as enemies?

“I don’t think so. Every day I see that the people here want to do business with Israel and ask for exit permits.”

Question: Then there is a contradiction in what you are saying. On the one hand you are saying the Palestinians want to take revenge and on the other hand they want to do business with Israel.

“Some of them. But at this time, most of the people here have the impression that the IDF wants to destroy the Palestinian people, and they react accordingly.”

Question: Why did you boycott some of the security coordination meetings?

“When the chairman instructs me to attend, I go. But these meetings are not important. We can sit [and talk] like that for two years. Up until now that Israeli government simply does not want to end the violence because it does not want to address the real issues. If Sharon wanted, as soon as he lifted the closure, opened the Allenby Bridge and the airport at Rafah, people would have a reason to stop the violence.

“But if we continue to be locked up in the huge prison called the Gaza Strip, then there is no difference as far as we’re concerned whether we live or die. What is the difference between living in Gaza now or dying in the Intifada? It is the same thing.”

Question: I have one simple question to put to you. Why can seven days not go by without any violence and without the firing of one shot, so that we can move on to the next stage?

“There cannot be even one [such] day. It is like giving a small child the opportunity to prevent any agreement between us. After nine months of violence, many people here have lost brothers or sons. We are interested in stopping the violence, and we also have the ability to do so, but it is also connected to your behavior, when you kill and abduct people from Area

You tell me, how can I go to the Palestinian people and tell them that we have made progress towards peace, when this week alone 17 homes were demolished in Rafah and more houses in Shuafat.”

Question: But this week there was also a suicide bomber who came to Afula. Had he blown himself up, everything would have fallen apart.

“As far as I am concerned, don’t let anyone enter Israel. But you think that what the IDF is doing in Gaza and the West Bank prevents a suicide bomber from getting to Tel Aviv? 99% of the suicide operations took place during the closure. The closure is only intended as punishment for the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people.”

Question: I will ask again, why can the fire and attacks not be stopped for seven days?

“You explain to me how this can be done.”

Question: You have 40,000 armed soldiers and policemen.

“Tell me how that is done on the ground, operationally speaking, when I cannot even get to Rafah with my officers. And furthermore, when you continue to kill, why would it be in my best interest to take action?”

Question: In 1996 you knew how to completely stop the attacks.

“That is true. Because then the whole world was helping us. I could move freely. And I also had a political interest there. What is your Sharon giving us now? He is giving us a closure.”

Question: If the quiet would be maintained for seven days, Israel would begin lifting the closure.

“Is Sharon capable of giving us seven days of quiet without killing us? Can he ensure that the settlers do not kill and do not abduct?”

Question: He can.

“That is not true. Not a single day goes by without someone being killed or wounded on our side.”

Question: Your deputy, Rashid Abu Shabak, is distributing weapons and mortars to everyone.

“When were mortars fired?”

Question: Just two days ago, into an Israeli community.

“We pledged to stop with the mortars and we are continuing with that. We succeeded in decreasing the firing, and we will stop it entirely. But you continue to demolish homes. What do you want of us?”

Question: Islamic Jihad and Hamas continue to perpetrate attacks in Israel. Do you understand that another attack like the Dolphinarium will cause everything to fall apart?

“We will make every effort so that such an attack does not recur. Believe me, we don’t want the Israeli people to pay the price the Palestinian people are paying because of the IDF attacks. I hope that nothing happens in Tel Aviv, but the situation is a difficult one.

“I assure you that if tomorrow morning the Palestinian people wake up and find that after nine months, the IDF has pulled back its APCs, opened the roads and the airport and is allowing people to travel from Nablus to Ramallah, do you know what will happen? That will be a positive shock, and it will not harm your security. The IDF can do that. Otherwise, even Sharon and Arafat will not be able to pull this wagon out of the mud.”

This article appeared in Maariv on July 13, 2001

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