Israel adamant over security fence
The International Court of Justice in the Hague on Monday began its hearing on the legality of Israel’s barrier in the West Bank.
Dr Nasser Al-Kidwa, Palestinian permanent representative to the UN, told the 15 international jurists that the security fence was an Israeli weapon to seize more Palestinian territory.
‘It is about entrenching the occupation and the de facto annexation of large areas of Palestinian land. If Israel wanted a wall for security it would have constructed it on its territory and raised it to 80 not eight metres.’
The snaking 435-mile fence was part of a concerted Israeli ‘colonisation’, he added.
The Israeli government says the fence is there to protect its citizens from suicide bomb attacks.
In the West Bank, yesterday, a mass throng of Palestinians took to the streets to protest in a ‘day of rage’ against the perceived ‘wall of apartheid,’ with Israeli soldiers using tear gas to repel stone-throwing demonstrators.
Outside the courtrooms, both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups demonstrated at different times of the day to avoid any chance of a confrontation.
Palestinians held aloft placards reading ‘The wall must fall’ and ‘Sharon’s hatred wall.’
Pro-Israeli demonstrators chanted prayers and waved Israeli flags.
The skeleton of a Jerusalem bus, in which a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people last month, was erected close to the building before being removed ahead of the Palestinian rally.
Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said: ‘I’d rather the Palestinians be inconvenienced and my children be alive. This is a lifesaving fence.’
Veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaking on local TV, claimed: ‘Peace will not be achieved between the two peoples and in the entire region in the presence of the wall of annexation, expansion and apartheid.’
The hearing is due to last three days.
