JENIN, West Bank — As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed peace negotiations in Jerusalem yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, prospects dimmed for the Palestinians to get the militant stronghold of Jenin under control.
Zakaria Zubeidi, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Jenin, said he is defying the terms of an Israeli-Palestinian deal granting fugitive militants amnesty in return for a commitment to remain in the custody of Palestinian security services at night.
The rebellion by Mr. Zubeidi, who is something of a folk hero in the northern West Bank city, could undermine the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to the United States and Israel to take more responsibility for security in a city known as a hornet’s nest of violence.
Mr. Zubeidi accuses the Palestinian Authority of currying favor with the United States and Israel by arresting some of his men, and refuses to return to the security headquarters where he has been staying nightly for the past seven months.
“We started feeling that they were only complying with the American and the Israeli demands. They are not treating us as their people. We are a burden to them,” he said.
Israel last week approved the deployment of hundreds of specially trained reinforcements and armored vehicles as Palestinian security services prepare to take more responsibility for Jenin.
Several months ago, the Israeli army agreed to give a pass to Mr. Zubeidi and dozens of other Palestinian militants in an effort to help Mr. Abbas enlist the support of the military wing of his Fatah faction. Under the deal, the militants handed over their weapons and bunked in Palestinian security barracks in return for an Israeli commitment not to pursue them.
The plan was intended to help the Palestinian Authority secure its areas, but many fugitives have refused to hand over their firearms.
In the West Bank city of Nablus last week, a group of militants defied the agreement to stay in a Palestinian Authority detention center.
“During the last seven months in the [headquarters], I was more demoralized than in the last seven years as a wanted person,” Mr. Zubeidi said.
“I tried to understand that sometimes the [Palestinian Authority] has to compromise with the Americans and Europeans,” he said, but he felt that the United States and Israel were demanding too many concessions.
Friction also is rising between the militant hero and the Palestinian Authority.
In a weekend interview with Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, Mr. Zubeidi called Palestinian Authority leaders “prostitutes” and blamed them for failures of the uprising against Israel.
His comments reflect local Palestinians’ view that Mr. Abbas’ agreement to step up security operations in Jenin is caving to Israeli military demands.
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