JERUSALEM: The Israeli High Court rejected government plans yesterday to build a section of its wall in the occupied West Bank, saying the proposed route encroached too much on Palestinian land.
Palestinians welcomed the ruling, but negotiator Saeb Erekat said far more had to be done.
“It just solves one problem. How many hundreds of other problems do we have in the West Bank?” he said.
The High Court ordered the government to re-route part of the wall near the West Bank village of Bilin to ensure that it was largely or entirely built on Israeli rather than Palestinian land.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment. Israel says the wall is meant to keep out suicide bombers.
Palestinians call it collective punishment and a land grab that denies them territory that they want for a future state. The wall in Bilin cuts some 3 km into the village, separating some farmers from their fields.
Bilin Mayor Ahmed Yasin petitioned the court in 2005 to prevent the Israeli government from confiscating land from the village, which has become a flashpoint between anti-wall protesters and Israeli troops.
Attorney Michael Sfard, who represented Bilin in the case, said the decision was important because it made clear Israel cannot create a so-called “security” buffer zone that juts so deeply into Palestinian territory.
The court had previously asked the government to re-route the wall near Bilin, prompting Israel to submit the new blueprints, which were rejected yesterday. In its ruling, the court called on the government to comply with the order “without any further delays.”
Erekat said Israel’s continued expansion of the wall and Jewish settlements were an “obstacles to peace” and he called Israel to halt construction.
The growth of population in the West Bank settlements has been three times higher than that of the rest of Israel. A report, compiled by the Ariel University Center of Samaria in the settlement of Ariel, shows that the Jewish population in the occupied West Bank has doubled over the last 12 years, a growth of 107 percent, and has surged from 130,000 in 2005 to 270,000 at the end of 2007. During this period, the entire population of Israel grew by 29 percent.
