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A Palestinian walks next to 8-meter-tall cement barricades that Israel built at the village of Nazlat Issa near Tulkarm. (AP)
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| By Ellis Shuman February 1, 2004 |
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Thirty countries, including 25 European nations, the United States, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Russia, submitted objections to having the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague hear the case against Israel's security fence, even though many of the countries object to the fence's construction. A Foreign Ministry official said, however, that the chances of having the court refuse to hear the case "are slim."
On Friday, Israel submitted a 120-page affidavit to the ICJ in which it reiterated its claim that the court had no authority to discuss the fence, which was an internal, security issue. Documents submitted to the court list Israel's defensive needs, including information about terrorist acts and arguments for the necessity of such a fence, Israel Radio reported.
Israel has not yet decided whether to send representatives to the ICJ when it begins its oral arguments on the fence on February 23. Last week, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided against Justice Minster Yosef Lapid's suggestion that Israel send a judge to preside in the tribunal's panel of judges, saying that such an act would legitimize the discussions.
The ICJ "is not the appropriate forum to discuss Israel's security barrier," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said last week. Boucher warned that The Hague case could undercut diplomatic efforts under the U.S.-backed "road map" to solve the intractable Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Boucher also said the ICJ only had jurisdiction in disputes where the parties mutually agreed in advance to abide by the decision. He said the United States had its own concerns about the Israeli fence, but said the question should be hammered out in direct negotiations, not through the UN legal body.
European countries opposing the ICJ hearing were careful to state that this opposition did not reflect their support for the security fence's construction. "The security fence is, according to its current route, not in line with international law and has terrible humanitarian implications," said an EU spokesman. The spokesman said the European countries had abstained when the UN General Assembly voted to send the fence for legal review at the ICJ, but now felt strongly that it would not be helpful for the judges to review the case.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said yesterday that he hoped that the objections filed by the United States and the many European countries would convince the court to cancel the hearing on the fence "because it is a political, not judicial issue."
Officials at the United Nations indicated on Friday that they cannot ignore the objections that more than 30 countries submitted regarding ICJ's authority to rule on the fence, and said that the hearing itself was in doubt, Haaretz reported.
But Foreign Ministry legal advisor Alan Baker said today, "The chances [of cancellation] are very slight. Maybe at the end. We have to go through the whole process," he said, quoted in Haaretz.
Foreign Ministry officials credited their intensive campaign to convince European countries against holding the court hearing with the change in their positions. But officials admitted that it was not for "love of Israel" that the EU raised its objections, but rather the fear that the Hague sessions could serve as an unwelcome precedent.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority filed its own affidavit to the ICJ supporting its right to contest Israel over the security fence. PA Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat said Palestinian leaders were upset with the American position that the ICJ should not consider hearing the case.
"I cannot understand it," Erekat said last week. "We seek to use diplomacy against the wall in going to the Security Council and the Court of Justice, and we find these countries, the U.S. and Britain, trying to shut the door in our faces."
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