Israel High Court says government acting unlawfully

Bombay News.Net
Monday 4th August, 2008

The Israeli government is under attack form the High Court of Justice.

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, and Justices Eliezer Rivlin and Ayala Procaccia have slammed the state for ignoring the court's ruling in relation to the security fence a year ago.

The Court has given the government 45 days to submit a new route for part of the fence which runs through lands belonging to Bil'in villagers, according to a report in the Haaretz newspaper.

A petition was filed in 2005 against the route, which is intended to traverse Modi'in Ilit from the east. In September, 2007 the High Court of Justice ruled the route in the Bil'in area is illegal, and ordered the state to devise, within a reasonable time, an alternative route that would be less detrimental. The court also instructed the state to plan the route so that it runs through state land, not privately owned Palestinian property.

The villagers wrote to the court two months ago, saying that the state has still not presented an alternative, and that work is being done on the ground that jeopardizes implementation of the order.

At the hearing on Sunday, the state argued that the court had ordered it merely to consider altering the route, exigencies permitting.

An angry Beinisch told the state's representative Avi Licht, "We rule that this route cannot remain as is, and we determine what will and will not be in the new route."

Licht responded: "This matter was clear, and was taken all the way to the defense minister." To which Beinisch replied: "He may have been mistaken." Licht then asked: "In other words, we did not comply with the verdict?" To which Beinisch replied: "Yes."

Attorney Michael Sfard, who represents the villagers, welcomed the court's decision on Sunday, but was less than optimistic about the outcome. "The High Court has to date rejected four routes of the fence that was already built, but to this day the government of Israel has not complied with a single verdict," he told Haaretz.

Have your say on this story