Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — The United States has decided to train and arm Palestinians employed at the consulate in Jerusalem.

Israeli sources said the State Department has violated an agreement not to arm Palestinians employed at the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem. They said the consulate, in a move approved by the State Department, plans to hire and arm 35 Palestinians to guard facilities as well as diplomats who travel in the West Bank.

“They’re trained in weapons use, Krav Maga, and tactical driving,” a source told the Israeli news agency Ynet. “This is irresponsible. Who is ensuring that putting this weaponry in Palestinian hands will not lead to terror?”

In 2011, the State Department pledged not to arm Palestinians for the U.S. consulate, which operates six facilities in Jerusalem. Instead, the consulate, allowed to keep 100 firearms, would be limited to hiring former Israeli soldiers or U.S. personnel. Under the accord, Palestinians could serve as security guards but must not be given weapons.

The sources said the consulate began to hire Palestinian armed guards in late 2013. They said the Palestinians, several of them linked to Fatah and Hamas and arrested for stone-throwing attacks, were being trained at the Palestinian Authority security academy in the West Bank city of Jericho. Others were sent to the United States for training.

The new U.S. policy has sparked an exodus of Israeli security guards at the consulate. The sources said at least 10 Israeli security guards either quit or were fired under the tenure of consulate security director Dan Cronin.

“The consulate’s conduct is extremely biased towards the Palestinian side, and Cronin is actually raising an armed militia of Palestinians in the consulate,” another Israeli source said.

The U.S. consulate has been accused of helping Palestinians in confrontations with Israeli communities in the West Bank. On Jan. 2, the consulate, without coordinating with the Israel Army, sent an armed convoy accompanied by Palestinians to the edge of the Jewish community of Adei Ad near Ramallah. At one point, consulate guards, responding to Jewish stone-throwers, drew an M-16 assault rifle before retreating.

“Were members of the American consulate knowingly taking part in a larger provocation, which is against the law?” Marc Prowisor, director of the One Israel Fund, which helps Jewish communities in the West Bank, asked.

The U.S. consulate did not deny that Palestinian staffers have been trained and armed. In a statement, the consulate, which divides Jerusalem into east and west, said it coordinates with “local authorities.”

“We do not discuss security for our diplomatic delegation, but note that there are many inaccuracies in the claims,” the consulate said.

  U.S. arms Palestinian guards at Jerusalem consulate