- Title: NETHERLANDS: WORLD COURT TO RULE ON LEGALITY OF ISRAEL'S WEST BANK BARRIER
- Date: 8th July 2004
- Summary: (U7) THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (JULY 8, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. PAN FROM TOURISTS TO WS OF PEACE PALACE, HOME OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE 0.09 2. CLOSE UP ON SMALL MONUMENT IB FRONT OF INTERNATIONAL COURT SAYING 'MAY PEACE REIGN IN THE WORLD' 0.15 3. TOWER OF PEACE PALACE WITH UN FLAG IN FOREGROUND (2 SHOTS) 0.25 4. VARIOUS S
- Embargoed: 23rd July 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS
- Country: Netherlands
- Reuters ID: LVA81WWVCMRT0CF6Q0YCBJ9IV01D
- Story Text: The World Court will rule on Friday on the legality
of Israel's West Bank barrier.
The World Court will rule on Friday (July 8) on the
legality of Israel's West Bank barrier with global opinion
at stake in a case which has underlined the paralysis of
Middle East peacemaking after years of violence.
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 on the network of fences, ditches and walls,
which Israel says improves security, but Palestinians call
a land grab.
Shi Jiuyong of China, the head of the court's panel of
15 judges, will start reading the ruling at 3:00 p.m (1300
GMT). Likely to run to many pages and possibly including
dissenting opinions, the ruling could take as long as three
hours to read.
Israel has already completed 200 km (125 mile) of a
barrier 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.
If Friday's ruling favours the Palestinians, they might
lobby in the General Assembly for sanctions against Israel
-- similar to the move to ostracise apartheid South Africa
after the World Court ruled its occupation of Namibia
illegal in 1971.
Israeli officials are relying on their U.S. ally's veto
in the U.N. Security Council to defeat any attempt to push
through punitive measures if the ruling goes against them.
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 said a World Court ruling could exacerbate
tensions.
"I am not a lawyer or a international expert. I lost my
daughter in a bus explosion in Haifa on the 5th of March
2003. I know that the fence is a matter of life and death
in our region. I think that building such a fence and
letting us build such a fence will be a smart thing, a
smart move to do," he said.
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 recognised Israel's security need to build in the West
Bank.
Palestinians hope the International Court of Justice,
the U.N.'s highest legal authority also known as the World
Court, will say it is illegal for Israel to build on land
captured in the 1967 war, possibly launching a campaign for
sanctions.
Head of the Palestinian delegation to the ICJ
(International Court of Justice) Ambassador Dr. Nasser
al-Kidwa told Reuters that Israel should comply with the
ruling otherwise it underminds the ICJ.
"The assumption is that there will be respect of their
opinion and compliance with it. Israel should do that. Some
of its friends, particularly the United States of America
should do that. The US has to push them into that
direction. Otherwise we are creating a new situation
whereby major powers are saying 'International Law doesn't
count'."
The U.N. General Assembly, where pro-Palestinian
sentiment is strong, requested an urgent advisory opinion
on the barrier from the Hague-based court in December,
leading to hearings at the court in February. The ruling is
non-binding.
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