Barrier may be moved closer to Israel

PRIME MINISTER Ariel Sharon and key Cabinet ministers yesterday considered proposals to move sections of a contentious West Bank security barrier closer to Israel, apparently hoping to deflect growing international criticism.

The Cabinet debate was part of preparations for a hearing next month before the International Court of Justice at The Hague on the legality of the barrier. The Palestinians say the barrier, which disrupts the lives of thousands of people, is an Israeli bid to grab more land.

They demand construction be stopped and sections already built be demolished. Israel says it needs the divider to keep out Palestinian militants who have killed hundreds of Israelis in 39 months of fighting.

Also yesterday, Sharon signed orders for the dismantling of three unauthorised settlement outposts in the West Bank. As part of the stalled US-backed "road map" peace plan, Israel is to dismantle dozens of outposts set up by settlers in recent years.

Both sides have failed to comply with the first requirements of the peace plan. Israel has until the end of the month to present its arguments to the world court ahead of the February 23 hearing on the legality of the security barrier.

Israel's acting Attorney General Edna Arbel told Sharon and other officials last week that the current route would be difficult to defend before the world court, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

The Cabinet ministers assessment is that the court will rule against the barrier no matter what its route. The ministers are more concerned about an appeal to Israel's Supreme Court made by an Israeli civil rights group regarding the barrier's legality, the official said. A three-judge panel will hear the appeal next month.

The Israeli leaders will also discuss alternate routes for the barrier in problematic areas.

Arbel was particularly concerned about an area around the Jewish settlement of Ariel and another portion around Jerusalem, which cuts tens of thousands of Palestinians off from the city that has been the mainstay of their existence for decades, officials said.

However, Sharon and other top officials have made it clear that the barrier will not be built along the internationally recognised 1967 border because the Palestinians will think "it is an achievement, that they pushed Israel to the Green Line with terrorism," a senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

In the 1967 Mideast war, Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip from Jordan and Egypt respectively and has since occupied and settled them. Palestinians want the land for a future State and demand Israel withdraw to the line that existed before the war erupted.

Justice Minister Yosef Lapid has called for the barrier's route to be changed, saying otherwise it would spell disaster in the Hague.

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, a member of Lapid's centrist Shinui Party, agreed, saying it "causes us a great deal of damage internationally, costs us a great deal of money ... and hurts our claim that this is a security fence."

Meanwhile, just a few hundred Palestinians of the 4,000 who have permits to work in Israel made it to work yesterday because of delays from stringent checks.