Israel will allow the arming of Palestinian police officers

FOR the first time in more than four years Israel has agreed to allow Palestinian police officers in the West Bank to carry weapons to enforce the law.

The army said the decision applied to all major cities in the West Bank and enabled "hundreds" of police to bear arms without being targeted by Israeli forces.

During the intifada, which erupted in September 2000, Israel came to define every Palestinian bearing a weapon as a target during military operations.

In the event of an Israeli raid into a West Bank city, the police would be expected to remain in their barracks, the army officials said.

Palestinian leaders questioned whether the move would have much impact given that Israel has frozen the transfer of West Bank cities to the Palestinian Authority.

Meanwhile, a political row has broken out over claims that Judy Shalom Nir Mozes, the wife of Israel’s foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, had an assistant to the country’s ambassador in Washington fired because he failed to get her an audience with the singer Madonna.