The next morning, Moussa described Zbeida's behavior as "barbaric." But he said that rather than pressing charges, he preferred to "negotiate" with him.
Zbeida said the governor had not delivered promised jobs to his fighters, and accused Palestinian security services of tipping the Israelis off about where to find wanted Palestinians.
Zakaria Zbeida, an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander, passes the offices of Jenin's governor on July 31, hours after he and his men set the building on fire.
(Mohammed Ballas -- AP)
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Last year, Zbeida and his men kidnapped Moussa's predecessor, handcuffed him, then beat him as a crowd watched in a public square. His crime, according to Zbeida: "He stole the people's money." The ex-governor fled for neighboring Jordan, Palestinian officials said.
In recent weeks, Zbeida has joined other al-Aqsa leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in calling on the Palestinian Authority to end corruption. They also urged Arafat to relinquish some of his powers.
"Zakaria is a public hero," said Hisham Haija, 40, an unemployed taxi driver who grew up a few houses from the Zbeida family.
The refugee camp has embraced Zbeida as a native son and as a protector during Israel's harshest incursions. He has parlayed the empathy and respect into the role of crude politician, rough-edged social worker and lawman. His soldiers have become a local police militia, according to Zbeida, his relatives and camp residents.
When young men harassed female students on a local university campus by taking their photographs with cellular telephones -- a serious offense in Palestinian society, which is very protective of women's privacy -- Zbeida sent fighters to confiscate the men's cars and rough them up.
He then recommended that the university hire security guards to prevent future problems.
He intervened at local hospitals where poor patients were being charged full rates: "We asked them to reduce the bills of the poor," said Zbeida. "We investigate thieves."
When a camp resident was accused of raping a young woman last month, Zbeida dispatched someone to administer a bullet in the leg, according to residents.
At a recent soccer match where town officials feared that rivalries between two teams might erupt into violence, Zbeida said he provided al-Aqsa fighters as security.
But even some of Zbeida's supporters said he had overstepped his authority.
"The protection of people is the responsibility of professional security people, not the brigades," said Ahmad Ghunaim, a member of the Fatah movement's most influential governing councils, a proponent of reform in the Palestinian Authority and a political liaison between militant leaders and senior officials. "The role of the brigades is to continue the resistance. The brigades are not supposed to decide who will teach in the university or choose the doctors in the hospital. They feel they have the right to do that. We believe it's not right."
Zbeida scoffed at the criticism. He noted that Israel has only recently permitted the Palestinian Authority police to wear uniforms on the street and still does not allow them to carry weapons.
"They are useless," he said.
Special correspondent Sufian Taha contributed to this report.
