Israeli Fence Remains Hot Button
Changes in the proposed route of the West Bank separation barrier could have helped Israel's case before the world court, a government legal adviser said Friday.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said in recent weeks he is considering steps, including route changes, to ease the hardship for Palestinians. Sharon reportedly is ready to move the barrier further westward, closer to Israel, in some areas.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday the U.S. is ready to support an Israeli plan for pulling out of territories held by the Palestinians and will send a diplomatic team to the region.
Powell testified on Capitol Hill that he sees hope for a break in the impasse in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to withdraw virtually all Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
Jerusalem police are investigating who put up posters comparing Israeli troops evacuating settlements to Nazis who burned synagogues during the Holocaust, the Haaretz newspaper reported. The outlawed extreme right-wing Kahane group said it had nothing to do with the posters.
A survey shows that a strong majority of Israelis supports Sharon's plan to dismantle 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger. A newspaper found that 77 percent were in favor, although it was not a scientific survey: It depended on mail from subscribers and votes in 1,000 ballot boxes around the country. The paper, however, said the gap between supporters and opponents is so wide that the survey cannot be ignored.
Israel announced Thursday that it will not take part in oral hearings before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, saying the judges don't have the authority to rule on the case. The hearings begin Feb. 23.
"If we had changed the route earlier it could have had an effect (on the hearing). It would have taken the wind out of their (the opponents') sails," said Irit Kahan, head of the international division in Israel's attorney general's office.
"Already some time ago, the government realized that the route of the fence was problematic but they didn't begin to change it in time for the court discussion," Kahan told The Associated Press.
"The issue is not the fence itself, but the route of the fence," Kahan said.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Israel's decision not to attend the United Nations-mandated court was only the latest instance of Israeli noncooperation with the United Nations.
"They are refusing not only the court of The Hague but many of the United Nations resolutions," he told reporters, in English, at his Ramallah headquarters. "This court of The Hague is according to U.N. resolutions but in spite of that, they are refusing to implement and follow up to it."
Israel says it needs the barrier — fences, trenches and walls that could run for up to 750 kilometers (440 miles) — to keep out Palestinian attackers.
The Palestinians charge that the barrier constitutes a land grab, since it cuts deep into the West Bank at points to include several Jewish settlements on the "Israeli" side, and it disrupts the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians who can't reach jobs, schools and farmland.
Israel TV's Channel Two reported Thursday that Sharon has decided to shorten the planned route and that three Jewish settlements — Emmanuel, Karnei Shomron and Kedumim — would now be left on the "Palestinian" side of the barrier.
Sharon's office confirmed that the prime minister is considering changes in the route but would not elaborate.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said the barrier is an attempt by Israel to annex Palestinian land. "If Israel wants to build a security fence, it should do it around its own border," Shaath told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
Palestinians fear that the barrier, together with an emerging plan by Sharon for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, would torpedo their hopes to set up a state in all these areas.
Sharon said he would go ahead with the one-sided move if there is no progress on the U.S. backed "road map" peace plan in the next few months. The plan has ground to a standstill, with both sides not living up to commitments.
In other developments Friday: