U.N. court rules West Bank barrier illegal
 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CNN) -- The International Court of Justice has said the barrier Israel is building to seal off the West Bank violates international law because it infringes on the rights of Palestinians.

In an advisory opinion issued Friday in The Hague, the U.N. court urged the Israelis to remove it from occupied land.

The nonbinding opinion also found that Israel was obligated to return confiscated land or make reparations for any destruction or damage to homes, businesses and farms caused by the barrier's construction.

The court noted that Israel has argued that the barrier is "temporary" and its "sole purpose is to enable it effectively to combat terrorist attacks launched from the West Bank."

Palestinian leaders say the barrier amounts to an illegitimate land grab by Israelis and an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to unilaterally set the borders between Israel and a Palestinian state, rather than negotiating with them as part of a final settlement.

The Palestinians also charge that the plan violates the "road map" to peace, the series of confidence-building measures and negotiations designed to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state existing side-by-side in peace with Israel.

About a third of the planned 425-mile barrier has been built since 2002. In some areas, the barrier is a fence; in others, it takes the form of a concrete wall. (Interactive: West Bank barrier)

The court said that though Israel was entitled to protect its citizens, there was no persuasive evidence that the barrier was necessary to attain Israel's "security objectives."

The advisory opinion was sought by the U.N. General Assembly after Arab states proposed a resolution to ban the structure.

In October, the General Assembly adopted that resolution, which demanded that "Israel stop and reverse the construction of the [barrier] in the occupied Palestinian territory," the court noted in its advisory opinion.

The barrier "gravely" infringes on a number of rights of Palestinians living in the West Bank and "constitutes breaches by Israel of various of its obligations under international humanitarian law," the court said.

The court concluded that Israel is obligated under international law not only to stop building the barrier but also to dismantle the existing structure.

"This court is calling upon nations not to help, not to talk, not to recognize any of the things Israel is creating by this wall," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told CNN.

"Call it a fence, call it a wall, call it barrier -- whatever -- I don't care," Erakat said.

"The fact is Israel is seizing this opportunity now and building this wall in order to confiscate land and to create policies on the ground and to have final negotiations by dictations rather than negotiations."

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called the court's opinion "a victory for our people, for all the free and proud people and for every freedom movement in the world."

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN, "This is disputed land, not Palestinian, or we claim public ownership."

He also said that the ownership of the land must be resolved in "political negotiation."

But "Palestinians do not provide us with a peace partner because Yasser Arafat, instead of generally coming to the table and negotiations in peace, is sending these terrorists.

"So, I think that has to be resolved when we have a real political partner, and I think we will," Netanyahu said.

U.N. sanctions may be sought
In New York, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said he does not expect U.N. sanctions to result from the court action.

"I don't think it will come to that. This is a nonbinding advisory opinion and therefore whether a country complies with it or not is not something that can or should carry sanctions with it," he said.

Under U.N. rules, the General Assembly can recommend sanctions but only the Security Council can impose those sanctions.

Yahya Mahmassani, the Arab League's permanent representative to the United Nations, said the issue is likely to be raised before the General Assembly early next week.

"Israel is in violation of international law, of international legitimacy, and the General Assembly now will be called upon to look at this matter," he said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher was critical of the court's action, saying "it could impede efforts to achieve progress toward a negotiated settlement between Israelis and Palestinians."

He said the ruling had the potential to "distract from the political work at hand," in particular the road map.

"The way to resolve the issues between Israelis and Palestinians, the way to create a Palestinian state, is through the political process, through the road map process," he said. "And that's where the United States continues to place its emphasis."

A statement from the Israeli government said, "Israel calls on the international community not to lend their hand to the ongoing Palestinian attempts to use international [forums] to avoid fulfilling their commitment to fight terror."

Israel not part of hearings
Israel did not participate in the hearings, saying beforehand that the barrier was a defense maneuver over which the world court had no jurisdiction.

The Israel Defense Forces, on its Web site, says the "Anti-Terrorism Fence ... substantially improves the ability of the Israel Defense Forces to prevent the infiltration of terrorists and criminal elements into Israel."

A graphic on the site said that since September 2000, more than 500 Israelis have been killed in suicide attacks that originated from the West Bank when there was no barrier, but only one suicide bomber came from the Gaza strip, where there is a barrier.

A statement from the Israeli government said, "Israel calls on the international community not to lend their hand to the ongoing Palestinian attempts to use international [forums] to avoid fulfilling their commitment to fight terror."

"There would be no fence whatsoever if Palestinians fulfilled their obligation," senior Israeli adviser Raanan Gissin told CNN. "Fences are reversible. As we build this fence we can remove it.

"The human life of 1,000 people who died as a result of suicide bombings that emanated from this territory are not reversible."

Israel is not listed as one of the states recognizing the compulsory jurisdiction of the 15-member court, according to the court's Web site.

The international court, created in 1946, is the main legal body of the United Nations and is usually called upon to settle disputes between states.

Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War and began building settlements there soon after.

There are about 230,000 Israelis living in West Bank settlements. Gaza is home to about 7,500 Jewish settlers.

The ruling was the second against the barrier in the past two weeks. Israel's high court ruled June 30 that a section of the barrier under construction must be rerouted to avoid infringing on the lives of 35,000 Palestinians.

The court reviewed a 25-mile (40 kilometer) section of the barrier, and ruled that Israel's government must redraw 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the fence that would run west and northwest of Jerusalem. The court halted construction on the section in March.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/...ier/index.html

Fuck the UN build it...UN is full of pacified eunuchs.

" Mr. Sharon, bring down that wall " ....

Think Bush would say that as Reagan did?

Of course the US is gonna let israel keep doing it, we have no fucking regard for anothers life, unless the money is there for us to worry about it ala IRAQ!

Anyways it appears that the cart did only focus on if the barrier heart the Palestinians rights. And not on if it help to stop terrorist acts that the Palestinians terror organizations executed massively in the past 3 years when there was no barrier.

walls are a bad idea... :(

its some sort of boarder...

So then they should of at least build it on THEIR land ...

My neighboor would not accept that I put my fence on his turf ...

BTW, try to post in understandable English ( sentences, grammar, etc... ). Your first post is ... undecodable.

The US will veto anything in the UN that comes out of that ruling.
They cannot afford to let this ruling becomes a precedent, India, Pakistan, France, Spain, Turkey, Syria and many more are in the same situation.
Furthermore, this ruling only adressed one side of the problem, it did not adress the terrorist problem, regardless of its reason..

Well you take it into too simple examples as neighbor's.

jews love war and death like the rest of us, let them wage theirs, we are waging ours.

http://www.rc.net/deutschertag/bwall.jpg

:(

you beat me 2 it.

someone was trying 2 kill you and a wall would stop them, what would you do... Talk 2 them or build a wall.

Not to compare with Berlin, but ...

http://electronicintifada.net/artman...llstory483.jpg
The Wall around Qalqiliya. A twenty-five foot high concrete cage cuts residents off from their agricultural land, necessary for their survival, and prevents you from traveling even 5 minutes out of the City. A single gate, open at the whims of the occupying army, controls 100,000 residents.


The most obvious historical parallel to the barrier is the Berlin Wall, which was 96 miles long (155 kilometers). Israel's barrier, still under construction, is expected to reach at least 403 miles in length (650 kilometers). The average height of the Berlin Wall was 11.8 feet (3.6 metres), compared with the maximum* current height of Israel's Wall -- 25 feet (8 metres).

00000000000000000000000000000000000


Nice to see that Jews learned something from WW2

pretty wall only thing I'd made that cock sucker 50' high

well it has no connection to world war 2 for sure...

LOL... Same line of thinking as the Nazis ... :

" Six million was not enough ..."

I said this wall was going 2 happen a long time ago.

I don't blame them one bit.

ok :)

UN makes lots of statements, but they don't get inforced.

The US will always veto ANYTHING that displease ISRAEL... But no other nation should VETO anything that the US wants ( ie: France in respect to IRAQ )...

UN becomes irrelevant in such a situation.

yes its true...

a wall stops terror? i don't think so.. good politic could stop it...

look... terror spreads when ppl are unhappy... they don't hate israel for fun coz its so boring in the ghetto.. the isralian politic would piss me off too..

imagine a tank drives through your house because they thought there is a hamas leader inside.. (but there wasn't a hamas leader) whoops.. who cares.. lets shoot some palestinan civilians.

israel have the tanks
palestina the kamikaze fighters.. its war

you asked me what i'd do ? i'd get a bomb and blow his home

They can build a wall all they want, as long as the wall respects the borders and doesn't take over Palestinians land and make the whole thing look like a concentration camp.

Sharon have no shame in admitting that he's in Israel to bring about the biblical prophecies and that the settlements are a way for him to make sure the Palestinians never get a state. And the neocons agree.

The walls and barriers are stupid.

Some walls go through peoples land, so they have to go through armed checkpoints to farm their own families land, then back through to their home which is really on their own families land as well. Fucked up.

Can't imagine these things as helping anyone. Very bizarre situation there..

well if I was the palestinan civilians I'd make dam sure they knew where the terrorist are so they don't make a mistake. Don't help hide' em

You'd help someone who took away your land? You're a quite peaceful guy.

if you don't want 2 get killed, tell them where the terrorist are.. simple

it's bullshit they harbor terrorist

walls don't stop terror & hate...

they just stop the communication between them so they'll never life without terror :(

you don't have to be einstein to see that sharon doesn't give a shit about peace..

:sadcrying

The Wall is a temporary barrier to stop cowardly people from blowing up babys, women and old people in shopping malls and pizza parlors. The Wall can be removed anytime BUT the lives of teh thousands of innocent civilians purposely murdered my the terrorists can NEVER be brought back! Can they!

The Wall is temporary but the pain suffered by the families of those innocent civilians murdered and mamed , some living with hundereds of nails in their bodies, that pain is permanent!

The UN is run by a bunch of Countries run by totalitarian dictatorships many of which are guilty of state sponsored terrorism themselves.

Where is the UN ruling on the legality of the Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli civilians? Where?

The Wall does in fact stop the cowardly terrorists from coming into israel to target civilians.

If this is war then you dont purposely target civilians in war. Sure there are always civilian deaths relulting from wars but to purposely target civilians is cowardly and the very definition of terrorism.

The UN is a fucking corrupt joke of an institution that lets millions die in Roanda Africa and does nothing, lets thousands of civilians get blown up in Israel and says nothing.

i hope the wall will secure the poor palestinan civilians from the israeli terror

:2 cents:

that wall signify a country of racism

The wall has already stopped 90% of the attacks, I don't thinks it will be coming down. If I was them I'd speed up finishing it by 1000%.

How dumb.

Since the wall was constructed, terror attacks are down over 90%. How dare those pesky Jews try to protect themselves!!

FYI...the French...to the best of my knowledge....did not "VETO" any resolution in regards to Iraq...but in fact voted in favor of every resolution brought against Iraq.

& the hate-o- meter raises by 1000% ...

GREAT! Now only if they built it ON THEIR LAND ONLY.

Cheers,
Matt

Right. It's so hard to put the wall along the borders? It needs to expand and take Palestinians land?

What civilians? Everyone in Israel is obliged to serve as an IDF soldier.

Right. Don't like it, leave it.

So why is Sharon targetting civilians? Let the RedCross leave tomorrow and millions of Palestinians would be dying as a result of the actions by the Israeli government.

Funny, I don't see you caring. Millions have been slaughtered in Congo and nothing has been done despite calls from the UN to action, thousands are being slaughtered in Sudan and so on and so on.
But I'm sure you're not the type to become a terrorist if your home was forcibly taken away from you.

fuck the hate meter they are stopping the asswipes from killing them.

hate meter don't mean shit if you are dead

that's stupid

makes No Diff. where they build it as long as it prevents ONE death.

get your ass on over 2 the Congo and help them.

i hope that the israelis will stay on THEIR OWN SITE TOO.. :2 cents:

Israel does not initiate attacks...it responds to attacks. There would not be any killing of Palestinians if the Palestinians did not attack. The fact is that there are multiple "terrorost" .orgs within and without...some of which...have sworn that they will not rest... nor will their children and their children's...children...until Israel ceases to exist.

I wonder if you have a source for these stats? They are amazing if true, since the wall/fence is still only about one-quarter complete...

Meanwhile, translated from a much longer piece that appeared in Yediot Aharanot (Israel's most popular daily newspaper) last October:

"What is the logic of such an evil, mad fence? Allegedly it tries to separate "us" from "them". But in reality, it connects tens of thousands of Palestinians to Israel. It allegedly tries to stop murderous suicide-bombers, but in fact it creates for them a magnificent hothouse and does not impede them in any way from their current mode of action.

And to what purpose are billions of shekels, 3 billion so far spent ? all dedicated to ruin the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, to crush their dignity, destroy their property, dispossess them of their land?

Tragically, this is probably the idea. This is the secret of the wall: not security, nothing like it. Not war against terrorism, war against
reason. A slow-motion catastrophe. Gradual strangulation. An evil illusion that an entire people can be made to surrender and become a nation of slaves, to make Sharon's and Mofaz' wet-dream come true."

He's the one complaining about it, not me.

I agree, Israel would live peacefully with the Palestinians if the Palestinians agreed to leave there land to the Israelis and never complain about it.

So be it, the mother fuckers ask for it and they are getting it.

If the people WANT 2 get rid of the terrorist they can, turn there ass's in.

If they want 2 starve the can, don't turn' em in.

If they want 2 see there kids go hungry they can.

Really? They where screaming for the oppressed Jewish people to come to there land and make it into a Jewish state?

who'd leave his own land?! would you leave YOUR land?