Ref: 44/2015
Date: 09 July 2015
Time: 12:30 GMT
On eve of the 11th anniversary of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, which considered the construction of the annexation wall inside the West Bank illegal and called for dismantling it and compensating those affected by it, on Tuesday, 07 July 2015, the Israeli High Court issued a decision allowing resumption of the construction of a section of the wall in Wadi Cremisan area in Beit Jala town in the south of the West Bank. In this regard, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reiterates its belief that Israel uses its judiciary to serve its settlement objectives and projects in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), and the highest judicial body in Israel continues to issue decisions that serve the occupation and violate international humanitarian law and human rights law. By issuing this new decision, the court abated a previous decision it issued in April 2015 ordering changes to the route of the wall in the area to avoid affecting monasteries and convents and access to them.
In its new decision, the Israeli High Court adopted the Israeli army’s plan, and the changes were limited to the Salesian Sisters Convent, the monastery and associated land, which means that only a small portion of land near the Salesian convents and monasteries would remain without construction. The Israeli military command in the West Bank informed Saint Eve which had filed a petition against the construction of the wall that the decision issued by the High Court in April stopping the construction of the wall in the area “did not cancel the construction plan, but called for avoiding affecting the monasteries and convents in the area or cutting the geographical contiguity between the convents and monasteries and their followers”. In the previous decision, the court demanded the Israeli army to make changes to the route to alleviate the damage caused by it, as the suggested route would cause a serious damage to the population and the convents and monasteries. The judges stressed the importance of keeping the convents and monasteries on the Palestinian side of the wall and maintaining the geographical contiguity among them and between them and the population.
It is worth noting that the annexation wall around Beit Jala, according to the latest updated route published by the Israeli Defense Ministry on its web page, is 11 kilometers long, and it extends from the northeastern border of the town near Aaida refugee camp, were a nine-meter-high concrete wall was established; continuing along the northern border of the town and then to the western border until bypass road #60 (al-Nafaq Street). The wall would cut off from the city about 7,200 dunums of agricultural land planted with olives, stone fruits and grapes. These lands belong to about 58 families.
Israeli forces started the construction of the annexation wall around Bethlehem district by isolating al-Khas and al-No’man villages, east of Beit Sahour, moving westwards to Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque (Rachel Tomb), north of Bethlehem, and then to the lands of al-Walaja village and Beit Jala until the Tunnels Road, west of al-Khader village. During this process, they established a new crossing, north of Bethlehem, to move the military checkpoint 220 meters southwards as a prelude to annex “Rachel Tomb” and the northern area of Bethlehem to the Israeli sovereignty. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been denied access to their lands to the north of the wall, whose area is estimated at 8,000 dunums, and the cities of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour and the refugee camps of ‘Aaida, al-‘Azza and al-Duhaisha have been cut off from Jerusalem.
PCHR, which had welcomed the ICJ Advisory Opinion that considered the wall being constructed by Israel in the oPt illegal, reiterates its call for the international community to immediately act in accordance with the Advisory Opinion to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and compel Israel to stop the construction of the wall and dismantled the parts already completed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In this regard, PCHR:
