Middle East - AP
Israel Settlement Wanted Inside Barrier
Date: Mon, Aug 02, 2004
By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - The largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank should be included inside Israel's contentious separation barrier, the country's defense minister said Monday, ahead of an expected government debate on the issue.
Extending the barrier around the settlement would mean Israeli control of a section of the West Bank, reinforcing Palestinian complaints about the project.
The comments by Shaul Mofaz came after an Israeli Supreme Court ruling in June meant to apply to the entire 425-mile barrier. The court ordered the Defense Ministry to reroute a 20-mile section near Jerusalem, saying it was too disruptive to Palestinians' lives.
Last month, the International Court of Justice in The Hague (news - web sites), Netherlands, issued a nonbinding advisory opinion declaring the entire barrier illegal and saying it should be torn down. Israel rejected that ruling as politically motivated and one-sided.
Speaking to reporters after a daylong tour of the barrier's projected route, Mofaz said the settlement of Maaleh Adumim, where 28,000 Israelis live, should be included on its "Israeli side," along with Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement bloc.
Maaleh Adumim is located about three miles east of Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, while Gush Etzion, a collection of settlements with about 40,000 residents, is six miles south of the city.
"(The barrier) will include Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim," Mofaz said. "I see Maaleh Adumim as part of Jerusalem that will form territorial contiguity with the capital."
Mofaz denied the barrier would follow the route of the "Green Line," Israel's 1967 boundary with the West Bank.
"The fence will not be according to the 1967 line," he said. "There were reports like this, but they were incorrect."
He said his recommendations on the barrier route would be submitted to the Israeli government for a final decision within a month.
Since the Supreme Court ruling in June, the Israeli government has been caught among the Defense Ministry, the settler movement and the international community in fixing the barrier's route.
Mofaz has sparred with senior Sharon adviser Dov Weisglass, who has advocated moving it closer to the 1967 boundary to placate the U.S. administration.
In some areas, the original route of the barrier cut deep into the West Bank, blocking Palestinians from their farmlands, schools, workplaces and nearby towns and villages.
Palestinians charge that the barrier is a land grab, effectively annexing parts of the West Bank to Israel. Israel says the barrier is necessary to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.
SOURCE
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