Palestinian police [Ma'anImages]

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Palestinian Interior Minister Abd Ar-Razaq Al-Yahya
and German Representative to the Palestinian Authority Klaus Burkhardt signed a joint agreement to establish a total 55 new police stations in the West Bank on Thursday.

The agreement is part of a joint project of the Palestinian Interior Ministry, the European Union mission to support the Palestinian police, and the United Nations.

Five of the new police stations will be in Jenin, where the Palestinian security forces recently redeployed.

Over 80% of Palestinian police stations in the West Bank currently work out of rented buildings.

The German representative released a statement in Arabic praising “Efforts exerted by Palestinian police in establishing a police system committed to the principles of rule of law.”

He added that Palestinian police funding, training, and other forms of support.

The German government pledged 15 million Euros (22 million US dollars) at a conference in support of Palestinian security and rule of law it hosted in Berlin in June. The government says it will disburse the funds by the end of 2008.