World - Reuters

World Court to Rule Israel's Barrier Illegal -Paper

Date: Thu, Jul 08, 2004

By Emma Thomasson THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The World Court will rule on Friday that Israel's West Bank barrier contravenes international law and must be dismantled, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported.

The court will declare that the barrier infringed Palestinian rights, according to the paper, which quoted documents it said it had obtained on the ruling.

"The construction of such a wall accordingly constitutes breaches by Israel of its various obligations under the applicable international humanitarian law and human rights instruments," Haaretz quoted the documents as saying.

The paper said on its Web site that 14 out of the 15 judges voted in favor of the ruling, with only American Thomas Buerghenthal dissenting.

Shi Jiuyong of China, the court's head judge, will start reading the ruling on the legality of the barrier at 9 a.m. EDT. Likely to run to many pages, the ruling could take as long as three hours to read.

Israel has said it will not accept what is expected to be among the most watched rulings in the 58 years of the World Court, based in The Hague (news - web sites). The case has underlined the paralysis of Middle East peacemaking after years of violence.

The Jewish state says the network of fences, ditches and walls has already improved security, but Palestinians call it a land grab.

Palestinians have been looking to the International Court of Justice or World Court -- the United Nations (news - web sites)' highest legal authority -- to declare illegal Israel's construction on land that it captured in a 1967 war. They hope this might in turn trigger a campaign for sanctions against Israel.

"We put tremendous faith in this court," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) told reporters on Thursday.

Haaretz said the ruling would declare: "The wall, along the route chosen, and its associated regime, gravely infringes a number of rights of Palestinians residing in the territory occupied by Israel, and the infringements resulting from that route cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order."

SUICIDE BOMBINGS

The U.N. General Assembly, where pro-Palestinian feeling is strong, sought an advisory opinion in December and The Hague court held hearings in February. The ruling is non-binding.

Israel has already completed 125 miles of fences and walls that should eventually stretch for 730 km.

The barrier has cut off thousands of Palestinians from farms, schools, relatives and jobs, but Israelis credit it with stopping suicide bombings and shooting attacks that have killed hundreds of Israelis during nearly four years of conflict.

Amaani al-Alami, who lives at Ar-Ram in the West Bank, said she might have to shut her kindergarten when 20-foot slabs of concrete are lifted into place for the latest section, stopping children getting to her school.

"I hope that the World Court will help us," she said.

If the Haaretz report is confirmed, Palestinians might lobby in the General Assembly for sanctions against Israel -- similar to the move to ostracize apartheid South Africa after the World Court ruled its occupation of Namibia illegal in 1971.

Israeli officials are relying on the veto of their ally, the United States, in the U.N. Security Council to defeat any attempt to push through any punitive measures.

Ron Kehrmann, an Israeli from Haifa whose 18-year-old daughter was killed in a suicide bombing last year, said his daughter would still be alive if the barrier had gone up sooner, and that a World Court ruling could exacerbate tensions.

"I hope they will not interfere too much between us and the Palestinians," he told reporters outside the court.

Last week, Israel's High Court ruled that sections of the barrier should be moved to ease Palestinian hardship and ensure access to farmland, schools and cities, but it also recognized Israel's security need to build inside the West Bank.

(With additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in the West Bank)

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