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International Court Rules on Anti-Terrorism Barrier; Israel Responds
By Emmett Barry, Novetra Jerusalem News Correspondent
July 15, 2004
Jerusalem, Israel (Novetra News) -- The International Court of Justice ruled in The Hague last Friday (July 9, 2004) that the anti-terrorism barrier being built by Israel was in breach of international law, and called on Israel to tear it down and compensate Palestinians harmed by its construction.
The lone dissenter against the resolution of the 15-judge panel of the International Court came from the United States. A Dutch judge also dissented from the decision that all nations act together to force Israel to comply with the ruling.
"Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated," said the ruling, read by the court president, Judge Shi Jiuyong of China.
Although the opinion is non-binding, the court hinted that the UN should be prepared to impose sanctions against Israel. "The court is of the view that the United Nations, and especially the General Assembly and the Security Council, should consider what further action is required to bring to an end the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall," said the court president. However, the United States as a permanent Security Council member would likely block any punitive actions against Israel.
The International Court of Justice disregarded Israel’s High Court decision delivered on June 30th, which had rejected claims that the barrier was political in nature or illegal in principle. The High Court ruled that Israel has the right to build a barrier for security reasons, although it disqualified sections of the barrier saying it could cause grave harm to the livelihood and freedom of local Palestinians. The Israeli Court ordered that the government reroute 30 kilometers of the anti-terrorism barrier.
Although Israel has been in control of the region since 1967, nearly thirty-seven years, there was never a need to build such a barrier between Israel and the terrorists. After scores of suicide bombings and daily terrorist attacks since September 2000, Israel decided to construct a security barrier to prevent the deaths of innocent civilians. In the past forty-one months there have been 20,910 attacks resulting in 941 deaths and 6,260 wounded.
Over the past 11 months, from August 2003 to June 30, 2004, terrorists operating from the northern West Bank managed to carry out only three suicide attacks, all within the second half of 2003. Notably, however, on two of these occasions the terrorists infiltrated through areas where the barrier was not yet in place. Since its construction, successful terror attacks have been dramatically reduced by 90%. Notwithstanding, the International High Court on Friday addressed Palestinian terrorism only once.
Most recently the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed branch of Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization, claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Tel Aviv on Sunday (July 11, 2004) which killed one and injured 32. Arafat blamed Israel for the attack, saying, “We are against such kinds of bombings, and you must never forget that the Israelis are completely behind it as they have been in the past," he continued, "You know who is behind these acts, which are aimed at harming the court decision. Europe knows it, the Americans, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, and the Israelis also know it."
On June 21, 2004 on the Palestinian Authority’s official website, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei recently stressed, “The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Bridages, military wing of the Fatah movement will not be dissolved and Fatah will never relinquish its military wing.”
Israel continues holding the Palestinian leadership accountable for not cracking down on terrorism.
President Moshe Katzav of Israel said about the fence, “It is the Palestinian terrorist organizations who should be on trial before the International Court of Justice in The Hague and not the State of Israel. As long as they continue perpetrating acts of terrorism, Israel must build the security fence and protect the lives of its citizens. The international community must halt the double standards; nobody has the right to condemn Israel or put it on trial solely because it is taking steps to protect the lives of its citizens by means of a temporary security fence.”
Critics of the fence say the fence is an obstacle to peace and cannot be moved. However, in recent history similar fences between Israel and Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon have been moved. Most notably, the security fence between Israel and Lebanon was moved eleven different times.
While critics focus on the concrete sections of the barrier, they will comprise less than three percent of the eventual 720 kilometers (450 miles). Most of the barrier is chain link fencing, equipped with electronic sensors to detect infiltration. Roughly 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) are concrete wall, built near Palestinian cities to prevent snipers from shooting at civilian drivers on nearby Israeli roads.
In response to the ruling, Israel reiterated it does not recognize the International Court’s intervention on the issue, and therefore will not comply with it’s insistence that the barrier be torn down. The anti-terrorism barrier is the largest infrastructure project in Israel’s history, costing approximately $1.6 million per mile, and when finally completed, is expected to total roughly $1 billion. As of May 2004, approximately 140 miles of the fence have been completed.
The ruling on Friday also demanded that Israel financially compensate Palestinians for any harm caused by the anti-terrorism barrier. Yet before the ruling was delivered by the International Court, Israel had already instituted legal procedures for the filing of Palestinian objections to the seizure of their land for barrier construction. As of September, Palestinians had filed $2.2 million in compensation claims. Israel has already budgeted $22 million to compensate Palestinians. Since the inception of the fence, Israel has hired contractors to carefully uproot and replant trees so farmers would have easier access to them. More than 60,000 olive trees have already been relocated.
Characteristically, the European Union moved quickly to endorse the ruling, citing the “untold humanitarian and economic hardship” to Palestinians.
Yet ironically, the European Union recently spent $60 million Euros to construct a fence outside the Spanish city of Ceuta. Unbeknownst to most of the world, when Spain handed over most of northern Morocco to the newly independent kingdom in 1956, Spain retained the cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the African continent just across the Straits of Gibraltar from Spain. The EU built the fence to prevent poverty-stricken Africans from accessing the Spanish city. According to European Union law, if anyone were able to reach Ceuta then they would have complete access to all of the European Union under the EU’s no checkpoints policy. Meanwhile the European Union is planning on building another fence around the Spanish city of Melilla.
This is not the first time Europe has created separation zones. For example, in Belfast, Ireland the “peace lines” separate British Protestant and Irish Catholic neighborhoods. The “peace lines’ are twenty walls of iron or brick twenty-five feet high, topped with metal netting, ranging from a few hundred yards to more than 3 miles long. (Pictured: Peace Lines)
More recently when Cyprus entered the European Union on May 1st , only the internationally recognized southern half of the island benefitted from joining the Union, while the northern half of Cyprus continues to suffer, acknowledged only by Turkey. In 1974, Europe created a 180-kilometer long separation zone patrolled by UN troops spanning the entire island at some points as wide as 20 kilometers. The zone was created when Turkey invaded to put down a short-lived coup, whose leaders were attempting to unite Cyprus with Greece.
Apparently from a European point of view, the ethical aspects of a separation fence are a matter of geography.
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