PM Netanyahu's bureau : Obama in Jerusalem March 20, over 10,000 police will take part in securing the three-day visit.

PM Netanyahu's bureau : Obama in Jerusalem March 20, over 10,000 police will take part in securing the three-day visit.(JPost).A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau said Obama was due to arrive Wednesday, March 20, at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv and then head to Jerusalem for talks with President Shimon Peres and a dinner meeting with Netanyahu.

The White House has not announced specific dates for the Obama visit, his first to Israel and the West Bank as president.
Later on Thursday he is scheduled to deliver a speech at the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem and in the evening attend a dinner reception at the official residence of Peres.

On Friday the American president is to attend a ceremony at Mount Herzl, where he will lay a wreath on the grave of assassinated former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin before heading to the Yad Vashem Holocaust institute.

Obama will also be taken to see a US-funded Iron Dome missile defence battery on Wednesday or Friday, the statement said, before taking off for the next leg of his trip in Jordan.

Well over 10,000 police will take part in securing the three-day visit next week by US President Barack Obama, National Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Monday.

Rosenfeld said the security preparations are the biggest of their kind since then-US President George W. Bush visited in 2008. Obama will be joined by an entourage of 500 people, including staff, security, and traveling press. His Secret Service security detail will work in cooperation with the Shin Bet General Security Services, in securing the visit, Rosenfeld said, adding that the police deployment will include officers from the full range of the police special and regular patrol units, including the anti-terror and direct action units.

Rosenfeld called the event “tremendously significant and important in terms of security measures that will be implemented,” adding that police from the Jerusalem, Central, and Judea and Samaria Districts will coordinate the security by way of a central command center to be run by National Police Commissioner Yochanan Danino at national police headquarters in Jerusalem.

Commuters can expect massive delays and road closures during the visit from March 20th-22nd, but Rosenfeld said national transportation police will post traffic updates on the police Facebook page and police website around-the-clock during the visit.
On March 20th police and the Shin Bet will secure the event welcoming Obama at Ben-Gurion International Airport, after which his convoy will make their way to Jerusalem. On the second day he will visit Ramallah and the Palestinian territories, at which point the security will be in the hands of Obama's security detail, the IDF, and the PA authorities. On the final day, Obama will make his way back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, and anyone on the roads in central Israel on the 22nd should expect serious gridlock.

During a meeting held Sunday night to discuss the preparations for Obama's visit, Danino said "this is a national mission that will be led by the Israel Police. The level of coordination between the different bodies - police, Shin Bet, IDF, rescue services, government offices and others must be carried out flawlessly." Danino added that the lion's share of the mission will involve securing Jerusalem, saying "daily life in Jerusalem will be disrupted and it is up to us to do all that we can in order to reduce this disruption as much as possible."Read the full story here.