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The World Court and the Security Barrier: A Pocket Guide |
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by haaretz via gehrig
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08 Jul 2004
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Background / The West Bank barrier on trial: A pocket guide
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
On Friday, the International Court of Justice in the Hague
is to rule on one of the most closely watched and potentially incendiary questions in the annals of the world legal panel created following World War II: Is the West Bank fence a violation of international law, as Palestinians maintain, or is Israel justified in calling the barrier a shield of self-defense?
If the court rules against Israel, the case could have far-reaching repercussions. Palestinian diplomats have hinted that if the court condemns the fence-wall-trench complex as illegal, they could then press the UN General Assembly to issue a broad directive effectively declaring Israel a pariah state - an echo of a 1971 Assembly decision ostracizing South Africa's apartheid regime over its occupation of Namibia.
THE PROSECUTION'S CASE
Palestinians argue that the route of the barrier, which cuts into the West Bank at several points adjacent to the pre-1967 war Green Line border, is a pretext for taking over and eventually annexing to Israel, large swaths of West Bank land which would otherwise become part of a future Palestinian state.
Among the Palestinians' arguments:
** The fact that the Israeli right has come to support the fence proves that its true goal is to enshrine settlements as integral parts of Israel, and to render non-viable or unfeasible any future Palestinian state.
When first proposed in the 1990s by then-cabinet minister Haim Ramon, unofficial leader of the Labor Party's dovish wing, the fence was to closely approximate the 1967 Green Line border. However, the concept was quashed by intense opposition from settlers and their allies on the right, who said the barrier would in time become a permanent border with a future Palestine, stranding, endangering, or forcing the evacuation of a quarter million settlers on the West Bank side.
** Construction of the fence violates international and bilateral diplomatic agreements by creating "facts on the ground" without prior consultation with Palestinian officials and outside any context of peace negotiations.
** The route of the fence creates untold hardship for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
In some areas, the route - now subject to modification under an Israeli High Court of Justice order to minimize the harm caused Palestinians - slices West Bank villages in half, in other areas cutting Palestinian farmers off from their crop lands. Winding routes have trapped Palestinian families on the "Israel side" and corralled others into "no-man's land"-like pockets.
The barrier also inhibits the movement of goods and people, curtailing the livelihoods of many merchants, professionals, and others.
As originally planned, the route of the fence will create a situation in which more than 274,000 Palestinians in 122 villages and towns "will either live in closed areas -- between the wall and the Green Line -- or in enclaves totally surrounded by the wall," according to a December 2003 report of the Jerusalem-based United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The report said that only 11 percent of the barrier path will follow the Green Line. Some 14.5 percent of the total territory of the West Bank, amounting to 850 square kilometers, or 349 square miles, would fall on the Israeli side of the barrier.
** The route has been dictated more by settler pressure than security need.
If built along its original lines, the fence would include on the Israeli side about 80 percent of the nearly quarter-million settlers of the West Bank.
ISRAEL'S DEFENSE
** The fence has already proven itself a dramatically effective barrier against suicide attacks.
According to Defense Ministry, IDF and police data released last month, in the northern West Bank, in sectors where the fence has been completed, the barrier has cut the rate of terrorist and criminal penetrations into Israel from a rate of 600 per year to zero.
The IDF Central Command, the army's overall West Bank headquarters, said that the barrier played a crucial role in the fact that the total number of suicide attacks and attempted suicide attacks plummeted by 75 percent during the first half of the year, as compared with the corresponding period in 2003.
No less than 58 would-be bombers were arrested during that period, and more than 100 threatened attacks were headed off, senior officers said.
** The fence would not have been built, were it not for the repeated and deadly attacks of Palestinian suicide bombers.
In 2002, before the fence was built, a total of 85 Israelis were killed in a storm of near-daily suicide bombings in one month.
This year, despite fierce threats of unprecedented, "volcanic" revenge for the assassinations of Hamas founders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Israelis have gone for as long as four months without a single civilian fatality in a suicide bombing.
** The legality of the fence has been upheld by Israel's highest court.
Israel's High Court of Justice has affirmed that the concept of the fence is consistent with Israeli law and that the barrier is being built for security and not political aims.
In a landmark decision, the court last week effectively upheld the government's right to build the barrier, provided that it does not cause undue and avoidable hardship to Palestinian residents.
Israel hopes that the decision will act to shore up others of its arguments in defense of the estimated $3-4 billion project, of which 200 of the planned 730 kilometer length is already standing.
** The fence is temporary and is not intended as a permanent border.
The High Court ruling requires Israel to re-route about 30 kilometers of a 40-kilometer stretch north of Jerusalem, in accordance with the principle that harm to residents must be minimized as much a possible.
In some areas, this will require construction crews to dismantle already existing sections of the barrier, a procedure which Israel hope will demonstrate that the wall is not intended to be permanent.
** Israel will seriously consider the grievances of Palestinians, who retain the right to appeal
The court decision, which ordered work suspended on those areas judged to work an unreasonable hardship on Palestinians, came in response to petitions filed by the villagers themselves, in partnership with Israelis whose community borders the Israeli side of the Green Line.
Immediately after the decision was handed down, villagers resident along the proposed route south of Jerusalem filed petitions of their own, and the court issued a temporary restraining order barring work there until the villagers' arguments could be heard by the court.
IF THE COURT RULES AGAINST ISRAEL
The advisory opinion of the court is non-binding.
If the case is taken to the UN Security Council, Israel can probably rely on a U.S. veto against any proposal specifying putative action.
The United States and the European Union pointedly shunned court's hearings over the barrier in sessions that recessed soon after they began in February.
(c) 2004, Haaretz
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Re: The World Court and the Security Barrier: A Pocket Guide |
by nytimes via gehrig
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Current rating: 0
09 Jul 2004
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July 9, 2004
World Court Says Israeli Barrier Violates International Law
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
The International Court of Justice ruled today that it is against international law for Israel to build its barrier in the West Bank and that it should be dismantled.
The advisory ruling by the World Court, in the Hague, is nonbinding. But it contributes to the debate surrounding construction of the network of fencing and ditches on lands that have been the focus of Middle East peace efforts.
Israel says it is building the barrier as self-defense against attackers, but Palestinians call it an attempt to grab land.
A copy of the ruling, posted on the Web site www.electronicintifada.net before the court began its reading of the decision, said that the construction of the wall is "contrary to international law."
"Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breach of international law, and under obligation to cease forthwith the construction of the wall being built in the occupied Palestinian territory," it said.
The Palestinian Authority, in a previous presentation to the court, had argued that the partly built barrier was a violation of international law and an attempt to annex Palestinian land.
"I think this is a historic decision," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, today. "I think the message to Palestinians is that they should pursue the path of diplomacy, not violence, and that they don't stand alone.
"I really hope tonight that Israel will stop building the wall, and come back to the negotiating table," Mr. Erekat said. "And if they insist on building the wall, they should build it on their border and not in the heart of the West Bank."
Israel, which contends that the court lacks jurisdiction to rule in the matter, had filed a written brief to present its case.
Today Jonathan Peled, the spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the advisory opinion "failed to address the essence of the problem and the very reason for building the fence —Palestinian terror. If there were no terror, there would be no fence."
Thomas Buergenthal, an American, was the only dissenter among the 15 judges, according to the copy of the ruling posted on the Internet.
The court opened a hearing in February on the barrier amid demonstrations by Palestinian supporters and a silent march by pro-Israeli organizations featuring photographs of nearly 1,000 victims of terrorism-related acts.
The United Nations General Assembly had asked the court for an opinion about the legal consequences of the barrier's construction after it voted in October to demand that Israel tear it down.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Nov. 28 called its construction "a deeply counterproductive act" that was causing the Palestinian population "serious socio-economic harm."
President Bush, too, has expressed concern about the barrier. But today the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, told reporters that the administration did not believe the World Court was the appropriate forum to address what is a "political issue."
"This is an issue that should be resolved through the process that has been put in place, specifically the road map" peace plan, said Mr. McClellan, speaking aboard Air Force One en route to a campaign event in Pennsylvania.
"We certainly recognize the need for Israel to defend itself and protect the people of Israel. It's also important that they allow the Palestinian people to move freely within that region," he said, according to Reuters.
Today the European Commission again urged Israel to take it down.
The World Court, based in The Hague and created to settle legal disputes between nations, is not obligated to issue an opinion. But Arab nations worked for the resolution in the hope of increasing pressure on Israel over what they consider an illegal land grab.
Last month, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the army to remove a small portion of the barrier and to reroute other sections to reduce the harm imposed on Palestinians who were cut off from lands they need.
The court asserted that Israel has a genuine security reason for building the barrier and can expropriate land in the West Bank for it. But it said the army "has a legal duty to balance properly between security considerations and humanitarian ones."
"We will abide by the ruling of our own High Court and not the panel in The Hague, with judges from the European Union who are not suspected of being particularly disposed toward Israel," Yosef Lapid, Israel's justice minister, told army radio in remarks made before the court ruling was announced.
Palestinian groups and their supporters have held a series of demonstrations in recent days to coincide with the court ruling.
Azmi Bishara, an Arab Israeli who is a member of Israel's parliament, was in the seventh day of a hunger strike today. He has been carrying out his protest in northern Jerusalem, under a tent set up alongside a main road where Israel is building part of the barrier.
"Israel has tried to present the wall as a magic formula they can use to remove Palestinians from their lives," said Mr. Bishara. "This is nonsense, it won't work."The court decision shows that there is an inhuman side to the wall."
Israel says the barrier is intended to prevent suicide bombings and other Palestinian attacks, and that it goes into the West Bank to protect some Jewish settlements.
Israel also argues that Palestinian attacks have dropped dramatically since the wall began going up two years ago. There have been no deadly Palestinian bombings inside Israel's 1967 borders in almost four months, the longest such stretch since the Palestinian uprising began almost four years ago.
However, Palestinians say the barrier separates many West Bank residents from their farmland, schools and workplaces.
The Palestinian leadership says it does not want to see a barrier, regardless of the route, but that it cannot stop Israel from building it on the West Bank boundary.
According to Israeli officials, the route that has been approved by the government would stretch for more than 400 miles. About one-quarter has been completed, including a long stretch in the northern West Bank and sections around Jerusalem.
Part of the barrier runs along the West Bank frontier, though much of it dips inside that territory. According to United Nations calculations, the proposed barrier would put about 15 percent of the West Bank on the western, or Israeli side of the barrier.
The barrier includes a network of electronic fences, walls, barbed wire, trenches, and guard towers. A chain link fence would run along about 95 percent of the proposed route, and concrete walls would make up about 5 percent, according to Israeli officials.
Israel seized the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. More than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The Palestinian leadership is seeking all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a future state, with a capital in east Jerusalem.
Greg Myre contributed reporting from Israel for this article
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