JERUSALEM, 14 July 2004 — Israel is redrawing the route of its West Bank wall closer to its borders to try to ensure Palestinians are not cut off from their lands in line with an Israeli High Court order, security sources said yesterday.
The World Court, the UN’s top judicial arm, branded the wall illegal and called for its removal in a non-binding opinion last week rejected by Israel and hailed by Palestinians.
Two senior US security envoys held talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about the repercussions of the World Court decision, unauthorized Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank and his plan to withdraw settlers from Gaza in 2005.
“The prime minister said at the meeting he was adhering to Israel’s commitments and intends to carry them out as soon as possible,” Sharon’s office said, citing the dismantling of unauthorized outposts.
An Israeli security source said redrafted Defense Ministry guidelines for the wall would have it run “as close as possible” to the Israeli-West Bank boundary.
“We aspire not to separate Palestinians from their lands and build agricultural (access) gates, and of course we will try not to create enclaves. However, there might be cases where we have no other alternative,” a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said.
In a statement, the spokeswoman said a team reviewing the wall’s route was working on alternatives to present to decision-makers in the military and Defense Ministry.
“We aspire not to put the fence next to the Palestinian houses. However there are cases where we have a 20 or even 5-meter (gap) between the Israeli and Palestinian houses,” she added.
Meanwhile, a local leader of Islamic Jihad was killed by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Numan Tahaineh, 38, was killed in his car in an “assassination operation” by Israel, which has carried out numerous targeted killings of Palestinian activists during the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Another man in the same car suffered gunshot wounds and was arrested by the army with three other men.
