Israel may re-route wall to help Palestinians

JERUSALEM - Israeli state lawyers say the route of a barrier designed to stop suicide bombers, which cuts deep into the occupied West Bank, will probably be revised to ease Palestinian hardship.

"The fence route will probably be moved, and a change of policy in the seam-line area is being considered to ease as much as possible the lives of the Palestinians living in it," lawyer Michael Blass told a Supreme Court hearing yesterday.

Completed parts of the barrier have restricted Palestinians' access to fields, schools and neighbouring villages and two Israeli civil rights groups had petitioned the court to declare illegal the barrier's planned route, looping deep into the West Bank to encircle Jewish settlements.

It was not clear when the judges would rule. The World Court in The Hague is to look at the same issue this month.

The petitioners pursued the case despite signals from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office that Israel intended to shorten the route, making it follow the pre-1967 war boundary with the West Bank more closely in a bid to secure US support.

Parliamentary allies opposed to Sharon's plan to evacuate settlers from the Gaza Strip dealt him an embarrassing blow by abstaining in a confidence motion.

He survived the second such vote in a week with only a few more votes than the opposition.

Israel has so far built 150km of the planned 728km barrier of wire fences and cement walls.

In court, Israel said the barrier had stopped suicide bombers from reaching its cities, where hundreds have died in attacks since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000.

"The basic reason for the barrier is the duty the Government has to protect the right to life of its citizens," Blass said.

The International Court of Justice is to open hearings in The Hague on February 23 at the behest of the United Nations. Its opinion will not be binding.

In a separate challenge to Israel, Palestinian leaders were considering whether to declare a state unilaterally in the West Bank and Gaza.

A senior Palestinian official said it could counter an Israeli threat to give up on efforts to negotiate a peace and take go-it-alone steps to disengage from the conflict.

Unilateral moves could wreck the peace roadmap, which calls for an end to violence and negotiations leading to the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

The wall

Israel's Supreme Court opened hearings yesterday into the legality of a West Bank barrier the Government says stops suicide bombers but which critics say encroaches on land Palestinians want for a future state and violates Palestinian human rights.

* Barrier planned to extend for 728km. A first section of 150km was completed in July and work continues on the second and third sections. The cost is $2 million a km.

* About 20km of the barrier is concrete wall designed to stop shooting attacks. The rest consists of fences with electronic detectors and ditches to stop vehicles.

* Its route approximates the "Green Line" that was the boundary before the 1967 Middle East war, but it is designed to loop deep into the West Bank around major Jewish settlements.

- REUTERS