Splits emerged in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s inner circle on Monday over possible changes to the path of the controversial West Bank barrier as Israeli police went on high alert for attacks in Tel Aviv.
”Our forces are on maximum alert,” said police spokesperson Gil Kleiman, adding that there had been warnings of a series of planned attacks by Palestinian militants in Israel’s largest city.
Sharon had postponed debate about the route of the barrier — which Israel says is aimed at preventing attacks — at an inner Cabinet session on Sunday to draw up a strategy for an International Court of Justice hearing on the issue.
”We are not discussing a change in the route of the fence, and there will be no change as a result of Palestinian or [the] United Nations’s demands, including those from the court,” Sharon said.
However, he said: ”It is possible that additional thought is needed to allow for the possibility of changing the route, in order to reduce the number of mishaps in operating the fence without harming security.”
The legality of the barrier, which has drawn condemnation even from Israel’s top ally, the United States, is to be debated by the The Hague-based court on February 23 following an Arab-backed request by the UN General Assembly.
Although the court can only give an advisory opinion and its rulings are not legally binding, a negative verdict would be hugely embarrassing to Israel.
Last week, acting Attorney General Edna Arbel warned Sharon that Israel was likely to face serious legal difficulties in defending the barrier’s route, provoking a debate on whether it should be modified.
Justice Minister Tommy Lapid is proposing to shorten the barrier by 200km and ensure it closely follows the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank.
Such a plan would save an estimated $500-million and enable Israel to better make its case at the International Court of Justice, Lapid says.
But Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz is opposed to any changes, the Maariv newspaper reported.
”As defence minister I can show you how each centimetre of the fence is needed by us to defend the citizens of Israel,” it quoted Mofaz as saying.
A further discussion was expected on Monday as Sharon presented an outline of Israel’s International Court of Justice strategy to Parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee.
Speaking before the meeting, committee chairperson Yuval Steinitz said Israel should not alter the route simply to appease its opponents.
”We cannot let ourselves be driven by fear of what will happen at The Hague hearing. That would be a fatal error because the court does not understand the issue,” Steinitz told public radio.
The Palestinians see the barrier, which cuts deep into the West Bank in certain areas, as a land-grab and a bid to pre-empt the borders of a future Palestinian state.
But Israel says that what it now terms ”the counter-terror fence” is aimed at preventing attacks by Palestinians infiltrating from the West Bank.
Sharon’s Chief of Staff, Dov Weisglass, is to travel to the US in the coming days for talks about the barrier with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
US envoy John Wolf was also reportedly due in the region next week, along with deputy assistant secretary of state David Satterfield, Maariv said, although there was no immediate confirmation from the US embassy.
Wolf was entrusted by US President George Bush with overseeing implementation of the Middle East road map to peace, which was endorsed by both sides last June but has since fallen by the wayside, with the Palestinians failing to end militant violence and Israel failing to dismantle settlement outposts.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops picked up four wanted Palestinians from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, an army spokesperson said.
Two were arrested in and around the northern city of Nablus, and another two were picked up in the town of Yatta just outside Hebron in the south.
Also in Yatta, Israeli troops destroyed the home of another Palestinian militant belonging to Fatah who was arrested several months ago for his alleged involvement in several shooting attacks.
On the diplomatic front, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, was to be called to account by the Swedish Foreign Ministry on Monday after he vandalised a controversial art exhibit showing a Palestinian suicide bomber.
The spat turned into a full-scale diplomatic row on Sunday when Sharon stepped into the fray and praised the ambassador’s actions. — Sapa-AFP