Israel to redraw route of West Bank barrier

ISRAEL is redrawing the route of its West Bank barrier closer to its borders to try to ensure Palestinians are not cut off from their lands in line with an Israeli High Court order, security sources said yesterday.

The World Court, the UN's top judicial arm, branded the barrier illegal and called for its removal in a non-binding opinion last week rejected by Israel and hailed by Palestinians.

Two senior US security envoys held talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about the repercussions of the World Court decision, unauthorised Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank and his plan to withdraw settlers from Gaza in 2005.

"The prime minister said at the meeting, he was adhering to Israel's commitments and intends to carry them out as soon as possible," Mr Sharon's office said, citing the dismantling of unauthorised outposts and humanitarian gestures toward the Palestinians.

An Israeli security source said redrafted Defence Ministry guidelines for the barrier - a 100-metre-wide swathe of razor-fringed fencing and concrete walls - would have it run "as close as possible" to the Israeli-West Bank boundary.

In a precedent-setting June 30 ruling, the High Court said Israel had a right to erect a barrier for security reasons on territory it considers "disputed", but ordered a 30-km segment moved to alleviate hardships for Palestinian villages.

"We aspire not to separate Palestinians from their lands and build agricultural [access] gates, and of course we will try not to create enclaves. However, there might be cases where we have no other alternative," a Defence Ministry spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said a team reviewing the barrier's route was working on alternatives to present the military and Defence Ministry.

"We aspire not to put the fence next to the Palestinian houses, however there are cases which have a 20 or even five-metre [gap] between the Israeli and Palestinian houses," she added.

Israel says the barrier stops Palestinian suicide bombers from infiltrating from the West Bank. Palestinians condemn it as a disguised attempt to annex land Israel took in a 1967 war and deny them a viable state.

The barrier often curves well into the West Bank to encompass larger settlement blocs.

Mr Sharon denounced the World Court decision as "one-sided and politically motivated," but said the High Court order would be heeded.