The Polish security agency has decided to help the Israeli police at its own expense in defending the Jewish residents of Jerusalem against the threat of the "knife intifada", attacks on randomly selected passers-by called for by Palestinian extremists.
The Polish agency City Security is negotiating with the Israeli Ministry of the Interior about such protection of tourists and Jews in Jerusalem from individual terrorist attacks, and it will cost the agency about $700.000, Polish media reported.
"These are big funds for us too, but not so big that we can't afford them," agency head Benjamin Krasicki told Polish television TVN24.
As the first reason why the agency is sending Polish bodyguards to Jerusalem, Krasicki stated that he cares to train and test his people on the ground in harsher conditions, and he also admitted that the reason is the image of the agency, but also of Poland.
"It can be an advertising strengthening of the agency's image on the very important Israeli market. The idea is strange and fraught with so many risks that I do not recommend it to be implemented. Sooner or later, either the Israelis or the Palestinians will get angry with us for a meaningless reason," said the Polish expert on terrorism from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow Michal Horošnjicki.
While the Israeli embassy in Warsaw and the Polish diplomacy do not want to comment on that private project of Polish bodyguards on the streets of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority announced a protest.
"If this is confirmed, it will be very disturbing information. It is the Palestinians who need to be protected from the Israeli police and Jewish settlers," said the representative office of the Palestinian Authority in Poland.
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