Police complete final riot drill before Palestinian statehood bid!
JERUSALEM, Israel - September 19, 2011 - Police have completed a major drill to test riot-response capabilities ahead of the planned Palestinian statehood recognition bid at the United Nations.
Speaking at national headquarters in Jerusalem on Sunday, Inspector General Yochanan Danino said police would allow nonviolent rallies by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians under Israeli jurisdiction to proceed, adding that there was no intelligence information indicating planned disturbances.
“Experience has shown that we have to be ready for a sudden outbreak of violence,” he said. “This exercise was held to ensure that all systems are working. We tested various scenarios again and again. We’ll be happy not to use any of these measures, [but] the scenarios that were drilled were realistic.”
The police chief added that the terrorism threat had not changed over the past two weeks.
Cmdr. Nissim Mor, head of the Operations Branch and a former bomb squad officer, described the coming period as a “minefield without flags”, saying police needed to proceed with caution.
The number of specially trained riot police had gone up by around 50%, from 5,000 to 7,400, with an additional 1,500 officers on standby, Mor said.
The officers are assigned to 16 command and control centers across the country. Police have already beefed up their presence around Jerusalem.
Mor said officers have been trained to deploy non-lethal riot response measures. To that end, 200,000 liters of “skunk” liquid, which produces a foul smell and has been proven to be an effective yet harmless crowd dispersal means, have been prepared.
Police have identified four categories of mass events, ranging from peaceful demonstrations that do not require any response to the most severe scenario of sustained disturbances involving the use of live fire by rioters. Set responses have been drawn up for each scenario.
