OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 1 March 2004 — Israel’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered the suspension of construction of a section of the barrier northwest of Jerusalem where two Palestinian protesters were killed last week, judicial sources said.
The suspension order, which will remain in force until next week, allows the court to examine appeals presented by residents of eight Palestinian villages in the West Bank against construction of the barrier on their land. Around 30 Israeli residents of the neighboring town of Mevasseret Tzion have also presented an appeal against construction in the area.
According to a petition presented at court, “this barrier being erected on Palestinian territory will provoke tensions which will endanger the security of Israelis living in the area”, the sources added.
Israel began work on a 42-kilometer section of its barrier last Tuesday which goes through Biddo and the neighboring village of Beir Surik, prompting daily protests and clashes with soldiers and border police.
The start of the barrier construction in the area came as the International Court of Justice in The Hague was conducting three-day hearings into the barrier’s legality which ended on Wednesday. No date has been set for the court to deliver its non-binding verdict.
Police reinforcements were deployed in large numbers along the Green Line which separates Israel from the West Bank in a bid to prevent any infiltrations by would-be Palestinian attackers after the Israeli helicopter strike late Saturday in which an Islamic Jihad military chief was killed, security sources said.
The main Erez border crossing between the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state was closed, preventing thousands of Palestinians from traveling to their work in Israel or in a neighboring industrial zone.
Meanwhile, four of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s top aides, including his chief of staff Dov Weisglass, were due in Washington for talks with Bush administration officials.
They were expected to present more details of Sharon’s “disengagement plan” which would involve the evacuation of most of the Gaza Strip settlements but a tightening of controls over settlements in the West Bank.
The United States sent three envoys to Israel 10 days ago to discuss the disengagement plan with Sharon. Sharon’s office said he assured them he was still committed to the road map, which calls for a negotiated settlement leading to creation of a Palestinian state by 2005, but would prepare unilateral steps in case the violence-stalled plan collapsed.
The Israeli envoys were expected to lay the ground for a Sharon visit to the White House, apparently in late March.
