B'Tselem: State ignoring court order to move fence

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem on Wednesday accused the government of failing to alter the course of its West Bank separation barrier in defiance of rulings from the Supreme Court.

According to B’Tselem's report, the state has failed to implement three Supreme Court orders to change the route of the barrier, one of which is nearly three years old.

Defence Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror blamed budgetary problems for the delay in the changes: “We are going to honour decisions taken by the court ... but it’s a problem of budgets” Dror claimed, but he added that there is at present no timetable set to move sections of the barrier in compliance with the court orders.

During the past three years, the court has ruled that Israel must move the barrier closer to the 1949 cease-fire line in three separate locations because of hardships the current route causes to residents, many of whom are cut off from farmland and services by the barrier.

The sections that were nullified are the barrier around the settlement Alfe Menashe, which the High Court nullified on 15 September 2005, the section running on the land of the villages of ‘Azzun and Nebi Alias, nullified on 15 June 2006, and the section by Bil’in, nullified on 6 September 2007.

”The authorities...have shown blatant disregard for the spirit of the high court resolution,” said Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem. “The state has dragged its feet on every step”.

B’Tselem's report coincides with the fourth anniversary of the advisory opinion given by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which held that building the barrier in the West Bank breached international law.