MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIANS TAKE ISRAEL TO WORLD COURT TO RULE OVER THE FENCE THEY ARE BUILDING THAT WILL DIVIDE THE WEST BANK FROM ISRAEL.

Record ID: 400620

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIANS TAKE ISRAEL TO WORLD COURT TO RULE OVER THE FENCE THEY ARE BUILDING THAT WILL DIVIDE THE WEST BANK FROM ISRAEL.
  • Date: 10th February 2004
  • Summary: (W5) ABOVE AND ALONG THE WEST BANK BARRIER (FEBRUARY 17, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. AERIALS: FROM HELICOPTER OF BARRIER IN THE QALQILYA AREA. AT THIS POINT, THE BARRIER IS A CONCRETE WALL EIGHT METRES HIGH. 0.18 2. AERIALS: ISRAELI VILLAGE OF BAT HEFER, ALONG THE NORTHERN PART OF THE BARRIER. THIS ISRAELI VILLAGE BACKS RIGHT ON TO THE THE BARR
  • Embargoed: 25th February 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: EL-AVIV, ISRAEL / RAMALLAH, ABU DIS AND VARIOUS LOCATIONS, WEST BANK / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAARMFYTNEVJSVBDQG4ICSLXEAW
  • Story Text: Palestinians take Israel to court over barrier.



    Snaking its way along the northern part of the West
    Bank, the controversial barrier which the World Court is
    being asked to rule on, is almost beautiful. Seen from a
    helicopter, its course meanders through rolling countryside
    neatly dividing tidy Israeli villages from pastures and
    Palestinian towns on the other side.

    The reality is somewhat different. The Israelis say the
    barrier is there to save them from suicide bombings and
    other acts of violence that have killed hundreds of people
    during the three-year-old Intifada.

    Palestinians say the barrier reduces them to prisoners
    on their own land -- a land which they say is being grabbed
    from them by the fact that so much West Bank territory is
    on the Western side of the fence.

    What is certain is that a new reality has been created
    for tens of thousands of Palestinians, for whom a simple
    10-minute trip is now turned into a two-hour-long ordeal.

    This is what confronts Radir Khaled, a young
    Palestinian schoolgirl. Every morning, she now has to wait
    for the Israeli army to open a special gate in the barrier
    to let her through, so she can go to school.

    The Army says it does everything to prevent disruption
    to the lives of ordinary Palestinians -- it merely wants to
    keep militants out of Israel.

    But Khaled has a different story to tell: she says she
    often has to wait several hours in the rain for the
    soldiers to come and on the days that they don't, she does
    not go to school.

    When the United Nations' General Assembly voted to
    refer the case to the World Court in the Hague, the
    Palestinian leadership rejoiced that it would finally get
    its day in court to air its grievances.

    But last week, Israel said it would not attend the
    hearings, which it said was a Palestinian attempt to
    politicise the court. It had the backing of the U.S. and
    several European countries.

    "We have a very bad experience with bodies of the
    United Nations," says Uzi Landau, an Israeli cabinet
    minister.

    "The Arabs have such an influence over there that they
    can get any decision they wish. They can also decide and
    suggest that the world is flat. This will be passed by the
    United Nations bodies."
    But Saeb Erekat, a veteran Palestinian negotiator,
    slammed the Israelis for staying away from the Hague.

    "The international community, the United States, the
    European Union, everyone, have been urging the Palestinians
    not to use the Palestinians not to use violence, have been
    urging the Palestinians to abandon violence and to seek
    negotiations -- diplomatic means -- to solve their
    problems.

    "So when the Palestinians go to the Security Council,
    the door is slammed in our face with a veto. Now when we go
    to the High Court of Justice, the door is slammed in our
    face," he added.

    Despite a flaring international controversy and U.S.

    disquiet over the course of the barrier, it is slowly,
    inexorably snaking its way along the so-called "seam zone"
    between Israel and the West Bank and separating
    Palestinians from land that they say is theirs. Once a
    distant controversy, the fence is now a daily reality for
    the Palestinians in and around Jerusalem.

    In the East Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis in the West
    Bank, the barrier is an ugly wall, made of concrete slabs
    eight metres high that cuts across roads and separates
    neighbours from each other. The Al Aqsa Mosque, once a
    short drive away, is now a long way away.

    These are images the Palestinian lawyers will most
    likely use to back their assertions that the wall is cruel.

    And likely to add weight to one cabinet minister's
    assertion that Israel would do better to go to the Hague so
    that it can defend itself.

    "I don't think Hague should discuss this matter at all.

    But if it picks it up and if it decides to bring the
    judgement, we should participate in the proceedings," says
    Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid, who admits that he is
    in a minority.

    The Israelis won't be in court, but they will be just
    outside.

    In a bid to back up their view that there is no
    alternative to a separation barrier, they are shipping a
    bombed out bus to the Hague. ZAKA, a private rescue
    organisation that cleans up bus bomb sites, is organising
    the exhibit. It hopes that by bringing ordinary Europeans
    in touch with the horrors of a suicide bomb, it will shock
    them into backing the wall.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register