Justice minister wants Israeli barrier re-routed ( 2004-01-05 08:46) (Agencies)
Israel's justice minister Yosef Lapid called on Sunday for the route of a
controversial West Bank barrier to be reconsidered, lest it draw sanctions
because it cuts into occupied land.
Yosef Lapid spoke as Arab nations pitched in with the Palestinians to prepare
a case against the barrier for hearings in the International Court of Justice in
the Hague, scheduled for next month at the behest of the U.N. General Assembly.
"There is a very serious risk the World Court will rule against us...and this
is liable to prompt the General Assembly into imposing all sorts of sanctions
against us," Lapid told Israel Radio, recounting what he told fellow ministers
at Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting.
"We must review the fence's routing," Lapid said. The barrier deviates from
the West Bank boundary and in places cuts deep into occupied land to enclose
Jewish settlements.
Israel calls the network of fences and concrete barricades a security
precaution that has already thwarted more than two dozen Palestinian suicide
bombings. Palestinians call it a land grab prejudicing future borders that
should be negotiated.
The project has stirred criticism worldwide -- including in Washington, the
chief patron of a peace "road map" to Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and
Gaza by 2005.
Under another road map commitment, Israel said it would dismantle two
additional unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, bringing the number on the
removal roster to six.
But with as many of 100 of the rogue hilltop settlements scattered through
the West Bank, and their architects allowed 10 days to appeal, Palestinians have
dismissed the eviction notices as a publicity stunt by Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon.
"DANGEROUS HURDLE"
The online edition of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a security
official as saying on Sunday the barrier would appropriate six percent of the
West Bank by completion in 2005.
Israeli government officials did not immediately comment on the report nor
the remarks by Lapid, whose secularist Shinui party is a main coalition partner
to Sharon's hawkish Likud.
In Amman, Jordan's Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said Arab nations were
preparing written submissions to the International Court of Justice to help it
"reach a sound decision."
"Israel's building of the separation wall is the most dangerous hurdle facing
the peace process which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005," Muasher told
reporters.
The road map also calls on the Palestinians to dismantle militant groups -- a
move they rule out as risking civil war -- and for Israel to freeze construction
in the 150 settlements built with government approval on occupied land since
1967.
The international community regards the settlements as illegal. Israel
disputes this.
Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz agreed on the latest evacuation
orders against Havat Maon and Tal Binyamin outposts after eviction notices were
served last week on four outposts built without government approval, the Defense
Ministry said.
A major move against outposts could lead to confrontations with settlers and
shake Sharon's ruling right-wing coalition.
Asked about the decision, a senior government official said Sharon "signed a
decree to continue the dismantling of unauthorized outposts -- and that is what
is going to happen."