ISRAEL : The Israeli High Court yesterday rejected a 2004 decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the West Bank separation barrier was illegal and must be dismantled, and ruled that the government had the right, due to security reasons, to build the barrier inside the West Bank.
In its ruling, however, the court upheld a petition submitted by Palestinian residents of several West Bank villages, and determined that the state must reconsider the route of the barrier in the area of the West Bank settlement of Alfei Menashe because it causes the Palestinian residents there undue hardship.
The barrier places five villages in an enclave and cuts them off from the rest of the West Bank, from where they receive most of their services.
But the nine-judge panel rejected the petitioners' assertion that Israel did not have the authority to build the barrier beyond the 1967 Green Line border and that its raison d'être was political, not security. In its decision, the court rejected The Hague ruling, saying the ICJ had failed to take into account Israel's security needs.
Israel chose not to appear before the international court and sent only a written deposition to explain its position.
The judges in The Hague, the High Court ruled yesterday, did not deal "with the factual basis regarding Israel's security-military need to erect the fence." In their ruling, the judges also wrote that they had "reached the conclusion that the reason behind the fence is the security consideration of preventing infiltration by terrorists into Israel and Israeli communities. On the other hand is the consideration of the human rights of the local Arab population."
Over the last few years, Israel has built large stretches of the 680-kilometre barrier, some of it jutting deep into the West Bank, arguing that it is meant to keep suicide bombers out of its cities. Israeli military officials say the sections of the barrier that have been built so far have significantly reduced the number of attacks inside Israel.
The Palestinians view the barrier as a land-grab - West Bank land has been expropriated in order to build it and thousands of Palestinian farmers have been cut off from their land - and believe it is an attempt by Israel to unilaterally determine a border between the two peoples. If the barrier was being built for Israel's security, said Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, then "it should have been built on the 1967 borders".
Addressing the UN General Assembly yesterday, prime minister Ariel Sharon stressed the importance of the barrier in saving Israeli lives.