Israel to boycott barrier hearing
 |
If completed along its designed route, the Israeli barrier would stretch 217 miles at an estimated cost of about $200 million.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
Israel said it is considering changing the route of its disputed West Bank security barrier.
|
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
|
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.
Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
|
|
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel will boycott a hearing before the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands regarding the legality of its West Bank barrier, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Thursday.
Israel has said the barrier is necessary to prevent terrorists from entering Israel from the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority says the barrier amounts to a land grab because it cuts off access to large areas of Palestinian territory.
Israel contends that the court does not have jurisdiction in the matter and that Israel can build the barrier as a means of self-defense.
The court scheduled a hearing for February 23 after a Palestinian complaint against the barrier was referred to it by the United Nations General Assembly.
The prime minister's office said a ministerial committee decided to accept the recommendations of advisers and not attend.
"The ministerial committee, headed by the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, decided that there was enough in the declaration that Israel delivered on January 30 which states that the court does not have the jurisdiction to hear the issue of the terror-prevention fence, which is Israel's basic right to defend itself," said a statement issued by Sharon's office.
Other countries, including the United States, have filed briefs with the court also arguing that the court does not have jurisdiction.
The Israeli government began building the barrier in 2002, about two years after renewed Palestinian-Israeli violence erupted in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In some spots, the barrier is an electronic fence topped with razor wire. Elsewhere, it is a concrete wall. If completed along its first-envisioned route, the barrier will stretch 217 miles (350 kilometers) at an estimated cost of $200 million.
The barrier's route stretches north to south, much of it inside the Green Line -- the pre-1967 border between Israel and the West Bank, which was part of Jordan at the time of the Six Day War -- and it juts deep into the West Bank in places.
It also cuts many Palestinians off from their farmland and villages, at some points forcing people to climb through gaps to shop and visit family.
In October 2003, the U.N. General Assembly demanded that Israel halt construction of the barrier and dismantle what was already built. A month later, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a report highly critical of the barrier, saying Israel "is not in compliance" with the U.N. demand.
In December, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution sending the matter to the International Court of Justice. (Full story)
The United States was firmly opposed to the resolution, saying it was counterproductive to the so-called "road map" to Mideast peace sponsored by the United States, the European Union, the U.N. and Russia.
The road map calls for steps by both Israelis and Palestinians aimed at ending the conflict and establishing an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
