Reaction to barrier ruling mixed

By Ben Lynfield
The Christian Science Monitor

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Yesterday's court decision, 10 days in advance of an expected nonbinding decision on the barrier by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is expected to have far-reaching implications. The ruling negates the army's route for 18 miles of the fence northwest of Jerusalem and is expected to serve as a precedent for moving other parts of the 425-mile barrier route — one-fourth of which has been completed — closer to the old Green Line border that separated Israel from the West Bank until 1967. It would thereby reduce, but not halt, the barrier's penetration into the territory.

Israel says the barrier is needed to block suicide bombers, dozens of whom have entered Israel from the West Bank, blowing apart buses and cafes and taking the lives of hundreds of civilians. While the Defense Ministry said it would abide by the court's decision, Health Minister Dan Naveh says he will attempt to reverse it through what he termed "emergency legislation."

"Preventing the murder of women and children in Israel is, in my eyes, much more important than the harm done to the Palestinian population's quality of life," he told Israel Radio.

Israeli security officials say the completed portion of the barrier in the northern West Bank has substantially reduced suicide attacks into northern Israel, and has driven bombers south to the Jerusalem area where the barrier is not yet complete. And a poll conducted last month by Tel Aviv University shows that 80 percent of Israelis support the barrier.

The court upheld Israel's right to build the barrier and said it is doing so for security reasons. But it said that military planners of the barrier, which snakes as much as 15 miles beyond the Green Line at its deepest penetration, had failed to meet a legal requirement to "balance between security needs and the rights and interests of the local population."

"Alongside the important security considerations, it must be considered that the fence harms the lives of 35,000 local residents," an official summary of the decision says. "It was very important to us that there were Jews who understood the damage being done to Beit Surik," said Mohammed Kandil, mayor of the West Bank village of Beit Surik, recalling visits by residents from the upscale neighboring suburb of Mevasseret Zion, who petitioned the court on behalf of the village. He said the route as planned would have separated the village from its olive and fig trees and grape vines.

At the request of residents of Mevasseret Zion, the Israeli Council for Peace and Security (ICPS), a grouping of former senior army officers, submitted to the court an opinion that the route of the fence harms Israeli security.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More nation & world headlines...