Israel redraws barrier route

Cartographers have begun moving the planned route of the West Bank separation barrier closer to Israel in line with an Israeli court ruling that the government must reduce hardship for Palestinian residents.

Later this week, planners will present three different options for a new route to the Defence Ministry for approval, security officials said. All three routes are significantly closer to Israel than the original path.

“We’re looking at ways to bring the fence closer to the Green Line,” said Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir, referring to Israel’s pre-1967 Mideast War frontier with the West Bank.

Also today, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made overtures to two religious parties to join his shaky coalition, a day after he made a similar offer to the moderate Labour Party, political sources said. In courting religious parties, Sharon apparently was trying to defuse opposition in his Likud Party to bringing in Labour.

The West Bank barrier is to run for 425 miles. A quarter has already been built. The changes will be made mainly in the section still in the planning stages.

Israeli officials said the planners’ decisions were based on the criteria established by Israel’s Supreme Court in a ruling last month, and that last week’s world court decision on the barrier was not a factor.

“What counts is the decision of the Supreme Court of the state of Israel,” Meir said.

The world court said in an advisory ruling that the barrier was illegal and must be dismantled.

While the old route was defined purely by security considerations, the new one would try to find a balance between Israel’s security needs and Palestinian rights, a defence official said.

In redrawing the map, planners were asked not to run the barrier next to Palestinian villages and not to separate Palestinians from their fields and schools, the official said.

As a result, the barrier would run much closer to Israel and more Israeli settlements would end up on the “Palestinian” side than originally planned.

The biggest route changes are expected between the Jewish settlement of Elkana, near the Palestinian town of Qalqiliya, and Jerusalem, a stretch of dozens of miles. Other alterations are expected in the southern West Bank.