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Israeli Court Pledges Quick Ruling on Wall

Posted on: Monday, 9 February 2004, 06:00 CST

Israel's Supreme Court on Monday promised a speedy ruling on a petition to halt work on a West Bank separation barrier, a case seen as a dress rehearsal for a world court hearing over the contentious project.

Responding to international criticism and the threat of the court cases, Israeli officials have said they would change the route of the barrier to ease some of the hardships on the Palestinians.

The barrier is one-quarter completed. Its planned route cuts deep into the West Bank in several places and encircles Palestinian towns and villages, cutting off tens of thousands of people from their farmlands, schools and social services.

Palestinians charge that the barrier is a thinly disguised Israeli land grab aimed at leaving Israel in control of large parts of the West Bank.

On Monday, Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said that in response to the barrier plan and other unilateral steps being considered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Palestinians are considering a unilateral step of their own - declaration of a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza.

In court on Monday, the Center for the Defense of the Individual argued that the partially built network of walls, razor wire and trenches, infringes human rights and is a breach of international law.

It said that if Israel wants a barrier, it should be built on territory that it held before seizing the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.

Those arguments are also expected to be made by Palestinian representatives at the Hague hearings, which begin on Feb. 23. Israel does not recognize the old cease-fire line as a border.

Israel will tell the international tribunal that the 750-kilometer (440-mile) barrier is essential to stop Palestinian attacks into Israel, as state attorney Michael Blass told the court. During three years of violence, more than 400 Israelis have been killed in suicide bombings that originated in the West Bank.

"It is not we who unleashed the demon of terror," Blass said.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak, presiding over a panel of three judges, raised the issue of the world court at the start of Monday's two-hour session and said he would render a decision "as soon as possible."

Israel challenges the world court's right to rule on the barrier, arguing that the issue is being manipulated by its opponents for political ends.

"We don't think the Hague court needs to debate this," Blass said. "We think the issue should be resolved between the sides."

Several other groups also filed objections about aspects of the barrier project. Human rights lawyer Avigdor Feldman, representing one of the petitioners, said the world court case should be an incentive for the Israeli court to make an exhaustive examination of the facts.

"The Hague hearing is in the background," he told Barak.

Other lawyers said that a full-scale Israeli judicial review, generating responses by expert witnesses and written legal opinions, could provide useful ammunition to Israeli advocates at the Hague, while demonstrating the Israeli court's own competence.

Joining the case on the government side, a pro-barrier group named "Fence for Life" said it would save not only Israelis from attacks; but it would also spare Palestinians the almost automatic Israeli military retaliation.

"If we have the fence as fast as possible, casualties on both sides will cease," group chairman Ilan Tzion told reporters outside the courtroom.

In another development, Palestinian officials said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Sharon would hold their first meeting on Feb. 21 or 22. Aides to the two premiers have been meeting on and off for weeks to set up the meeting, but so far to no avail. Palestinians have been holding out for Israeli promises to ease restrictions before agreeing to a summit meeting, seen as a key for restarting stalled peace talks.

Meanwhile, a new poll found that Palestinian support for violence and suicide bombings against Israel has dropped sharply.

Only 35 percent of respondents supported continuing the violence, down from 43 percent in November and 73 percent in November 2000. The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion poll surveyed 500 Palestinian adults and quoted a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

But violence continued Monday, with two Palestinians killed in Gaza and another in the West Bank, Palestinians said.

One of the Palestinians killed in Gaza was identified as a member of Hamas, but the army said it had no part in the man's death. The second was a 17-year-old youth, the Palestinians said. The military had no comment.

In the West Bank, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers near the town of Jenin. The military said he was shooting at construction workers near an Israeli settlement, wounding a soldier, and was hit by return fire from soldiers.

(pvs-scw/ml)

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