Israel’s High Court ordered the government on Thursday to find a different route for the West Bank barrier in the region of the Alfe Menashe settlement in the northern West Bank.
The unanimous ruling by the nine-judge panel effectively means the section of the fence already built in the area has to be rebuilt.
The main opinion, written by Chief Justice Aharon Barak, said the state must ”within a reasonable period, reconsider the various alternatives for the separation fence route at Alfe Menashe, while examining security alternatives which injure the fabric of life of the residents of the villages of the enclave to a lesser extent”.
The court was responding to a petition by five Palestinian villages, which said the construction of the fence isolated them and violated their human rights.
The barrier, as currently routed, encompasses large areas of empty land around Alfe Menashe, as well as five small Palestinian villages that are consequently almost completely cut of from access to vital services in nearby West Bank population centres, such as the city of Qalqilya, which lies on the border with Israel.
The court also ruled on Thursday that a previous decision on the West Bank fence by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, calling on Israel to dismantle the barrier, was non-binding.
The judges ruled that the ICJ decision ”was based on a different factual basis … and does not obligate the Supreme Court of Israel to determine that all segments of the fence violate international law”.
The court will examine the legality of the barrier segment by segment, rather than as a whole, Thursday’s ruling said.
Israel began building the West Bank barrier in the summer of 2002, following a spate of suicide bombings in Israeli cities launched from the West Bank.
The barrier, which consists mainly of a highly sophisticated fence, except in some prominent urban areas where it is constructed of cement, has come in for harsh criticism since in some locations it snakes deep into the West Bank, leading to charges that it is less a security measure than an Israeli land grab.
The ICJ ruled in July last year that the barrier was illegal and had to be dismantled in those areas where it was constructed on occupied territory. — Sapa-DPA