Palestinians rebuffed in Israeli fence case

Palestinians rebuffed in Israeli fence case
By Ed O'loughlin
Middle East Correspondent
Jerusalem
September 16, 2005

ISRAEL'S highest court has rejected a ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel's construction of walls and fences inside the occupied Palestinian territories violates international law.

In a unanimous ruling by nine judges, the High Court of Justice rejected a petition from five Palestinian villages calling for the half-completed 600-kilometre complex of walls and fences that gouges into the West Bank and East Jerusalem to connect Jewish settlements to Israel to be outlawed.

The court ruled that Israel had a right to build the barrier to protect its citizens — including Jewish settlers in the West Bank — from terrorist attacks.

It said the international court had not heard Israel's side before making its ruling last year; nor did it consider Israel's security needs.

Israel refused to participate in last year's ICJ case, which led to a ruling that Jewish settlement extending fences to protect Jewish settlements in the West Bank contravened the Geneva Convention's provisions forbidding states from settling their own citizens in seized territories. The court in The Hague ruled that the route of the fence inside the West Bank was based on political considerations and not purely on security grounds.

In Washington this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel would continue to expand its settlement of the West Bank despite international pressure, including criticism from its main sponsor, the US. He was speaking three days after Israel withdrew the last of its troops from the Gaza Strip.