Israel Rerouting W.Bank Barrier Closer to Boundary

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=8&u=/nm/20040729/ts_nm/mideast_dc

Israel Rerouting W.Bank Barrier Closer to Boundary

By Mark Heinrich

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will reroute its West Bank barrier closer to its boundary with the occupied territory under a court order that Palestinians must not be cut off from their lands, the project's administrator said Thursday.

It was the first confirmation of leaks from security sources that the barrier, which the World Court and U.N. General Assembly have branded illegal and said should be dismantled, would in future run nearer to the "Green Line" frontier.

<snip>In a precedent-setting decision on a Palestinian appeal last month, Israel's High Court ordered a 30-km (18-mile) section moved to ease hardship on Palestinians. But it also said Israel may erect a "security" barrier on land it considers "disputed."

"In the framework of the changes spurred by the High Court ruling, when the new maps are published they will show movement toward the Green Line, although not right on the Green Line," Netzah Mashiah, director of the Defense Ministry's barrier administration, said on Israel Radio.

<snip>Mashiah said the changes would leave the West Bank's largest settlement, Maaleh Adumim, a few miles east of Jerusalem and straddling the territory's mid-section, outside the barrier.

He said another settlement bloc, Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, would remain inside it. A third, Ariel, would be ringed with a local fence rather than taken in by a huge loop in the barrier that could have dissected much of the West Bank. <snip>

[Gimel]

1. Not much notice

of these important news items. The initial claims were just too good.

[IA_Seth]

2. Getting Closer

It's good that this wall is being moved closer to the Green Line, and I am glad the move is being made, however it is still not in compliance with the ICJ decision.

Hopefully this is just an initial step in a broader move to consider less lands "disputed"