More than 10,000 Israeli police officers will secure US President George W. Bush’s visit to Jerusalem next week, police said Wednesday. The three-day visit, which gets underway on Wednesday, will see a total of 10,450 police officers on the streets of Jerusalem to safeguard the president and his entourage, Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said at a police briefing. The police will be out in their largest numbers since the landmark 2000 Jerusalem visit of Pope John Paul II, and the 1998 visit of former US President Bill Clinton, Franco said.
No security threats against the US President have been received by police to date, he added.
The total number of police forces to be deployed during the three days of Bush’s visit to Jerusalem even surpasses the 8,000 police officers that oversaw Israel’s pullout from Gaza two years ago.