West Bank City of Nablus Suffers from Lawlessness

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And even as much attention in the Middle East has been focused on the Gaza Strip, the situation in the West Bank is hardly any better. In the area's largest city, Nablus, gunmen have virtually taken over the streets, and many residents are afraid to leave their homes.

The crime rate is soaring and the local government seems unable to respond. The mayor of Nablus blames Israel for this grim situation, but some residents say the Palestinians themselves are responsible.

NPR's Linda Gradstein reports from Nablus.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: Bakery owner Khalil Abusair(ph) has been trying for years to collect on a debt of $20,000 he loaned to a neighbor. He eventually went to a lawyer, but all to no avail. Then one day, the neighbor came and shot up Khalil's bakery. No one was hurt but there was extensive damage. The neighbor went unpunished for the attack. He also threatened the lawyer. Khalil has given up trying to recover the money.

Mr. KHALIL ABUSAIR (Bakery Owner): (Through Translator) We are threatened personally, and also our business is threatened. The lack of the presence of police that protects the citizens also makes me worry about myself and about my business. You can easily see armed men in the main square of the town. During Ramadan they were all over.

GRADSTEIN: Nasser Juma'a used to be one of those armed men, a founder and former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Today he's a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Juma'a says there are only a few hundred gunmen operating in Nablus, but he says they've poisoned the atmosphere in the city.

Mr. NASSER JUMA'A (Palestinian Legislative Council): (Through Translator) Basically, there is no law in this town or in the country at large.

GRADSTEIN: Juma'a says guns and ammunition are freely available, though expensive, on the black market in Nablus. Most are smuggled in from Israel. A U.S.-made M-16 rifle, he says, now costs almost $10,000 here; that's several times the price in Israel.

Nablus Mayor Adly Yaish is affiliated with the ruling Islamist Hamas Movement. He acknowledges that crime has increased in the city of 170,000. But he blames Israel, saying that until recently Israel would not allow armed Palestinian police to deploy in Nablus. Israeli officials say that's because many members of the Palestinian security forces have been involved in attacks on Israelis.

Yaish says city officials are trying to collect unlicensed weapons in the city but it's not an easy task. He says there are two types of gunmen operating in Nablus.

Mayor ADLY YAISH (Nablus, Palestine): Some of them are resistance, resisting the Israeli because the Israeli are coming to - every night, nearly -(unintelligible) Nablus. So some of them are really resisting the armed Israeli. But there's other gang who are really carrying guns in the name of resistance, but they are doing bad things.

GRADSTEIN: Yaish says Palestinian society is in crisis with a myriad of problems sparked by the lawlessness and the continuing Israeli siege. Israel does not allow men under 35 to leave the city to find work, and that, he says, has pushed many families into poverty.

Samira Tabuk(ph) is one example. A mother of seven children, she says her husband only manages to find occasional work as a day laborer. Her oldest son Mahmoud, now 19, is in an Israeli jail for trying to smuggle a knife through a roadblock. Samira's brother-in-law, a member of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, was killed by Israeli forces last year.

She says the situation in Nablus has never been worse. There is gunfire in the streets at night. She worries every time her children leave the house, and she tells them to come home right after school.

Ms. SAMIRA TABUK (Resident, Nablus): (Through translator) A small problem ends up in a killing, and everybody then forgets about it. Had we had a president or a ruler or law, then such situations would not be allowed to happen.

GRADSTEIN: Samira says the Palestinians themselves must bear responsibility for the chaos here.

Ms. TABUK: (Through translator) Israel has nothing to do with this situation. It does not tell us to throw ourselves on the fire. You see for sure young men walking in the streets of Nablus either carrying a knife or carrying a homemade weapon. There are all kinds of armed men in the streets.

GRADSTEIN: Mayor Adly Yaish says Israeli authorities recently agreed to allow armed Palestinian police to patrol parts of Nablus at certain hours, and he hopes that soon crime will go down. But there is no visible police presence in the city yet, and many Nablus residents say they doubt the police would be willing to confront the gunmen anyway.

Linda Gradstein, NPR News, Nablus.

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