Israeli barrier to take in Jerusalem settlement suburb
AFP
Date: 03-14-05
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A ministerial review has decided that Israel's West Bank security barrier will incorporate the Jerusalem settlement suburb of Maale Adumim along with almost all the holy city.
"Maale Adumim and its industrial zone are an integral part of Israel and I don't believe the Americans will contest it because President George W. Bush said a permanent settlement must take demographic realities into account," Trade and Industry Minister Ehud Olmert told public radio on Monday.
Aside from the 30,000-strong Maale Adumim, the barrier will take in Rachel's Tomb, near the southern town of Bethlehem and almost all annexed east Jerusalem, except for a small sector to the north.
Olmert said the new route of the controversial separation barrier, which Israel maintains is an essential security deterrent that bars would-be attackers from infiltrating its territory, had been agreed late Sunday.
The isolated northern sector, home to the Shuafat refugee camp, will be linked to Jerusalem by a corridor. Eleven passage points are to be built to give Jerusalem access to the West Bank.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, Interior Minister Ofer Pines, Housing Minister Yitzhak Herzog and Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra sit on the ministerial committee that took the decision over the new route.
But Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said the inclusion of Maale Adumim was not definite.
"The line of the route in this sector is pink, not red on the map," he told public radio.
Last July, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the barrier, which often juts deep into Palestinian territory, "illegal" in an non-binding opinion, but Israel vowed to complete building it.
Last month, the Israeli cabinet voted a modified path for the barrier that takes in less Palestinian land but absorbs at least two large settlement blocs.
Palestinians have slammed the barrier as an "apartheid wall" and charge that the fence seeks to predetermine the borders of their future state.
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