Aluf Benn
Haaretz
July 11, 2204
Israel's image took a beating from the ICJ
(International Court of Justice) on Friday. For the present it seems
Israel will be able to stop the ruling from becoming a binding UN
resolution, and will be able to go about its business as usual.
But in the long run, the judges' decision in The Hague damages
Israel's legitimacy and portrays it as a criminal state that has been
acting contrary to international law for 37 years in the
territories.
Israel's arguments, that the West Bank is
"controversial territory," that the settlements are legal, and that it is
waging a just defensive war against Palestinian terror - have been totally
rejected. The judges ruled unanimously that Israel is an occupying power,
that the settlements are in violation of international law, and that
building a fence beyond the Green Line is prohibited.
Even Judge
Thomas Buergenthal, the American judge on the ICJ and the only one to
dissent from the verdict, agreed with his colleagues' conclusions and
expressed reservations mainly on the fence route. The Palestinians and
their supporters in the international community won a big gift in The
Hague.
From now on, Israel's information apologists will have to
cope not only with the resolutions of the UN, which they portray as a
hostile political body, but with the reasoned ruling of a professional,
respected legal body, which has declared that Israel is engaged in a war
of occupation and annexation territories, as the Palestinians
claim.
Senior Israeli officials consoled themselves over the
weekend that the ruling went too far in favor of the Palestinians, and
that in their desire to convict Israel, the judges ignored the reason for
the fence - Palestinian terror.
Officials hope this will make it
easier for Israel to blast the decision. But woe betide such a
consolation. The Hague ruling, calling for a halt to the construction and
taking down the sections already built, follows the Israeli High Court of
Justice's demand to move the fence route because of the injury it inflicts
on the Palestinians.
The section ruled out of order in the
Jerusalem corridor will be replanned as closely as possible to the green
line.
The Sharon government's main project suddenly appears to its
creators to be a cumbersome burden. In the next few days the political
battle will move to New York. Israel will try to persuade the European
states not to support the Palestinian resolution proposal for the UN
General Assembly to adopt The Hague's ruling.
The U.S. promised to
stop the issue from passing to the Security Council, which can impose
sanctions. Washington Ambassador Danny Ayalon, who went to Jerusalem for
consultations, predicts that the U.S. will veto the proposal. The
Palestinians will then take the debate to the UN emergency assembly, which
has no enforcing power, but can recommend sanctions.
Foreign
Ministry veterans remember the previous emergency assembly in 1982, after
Israel decided to annex the Golan Heights. The assembly recommended
severing political and economic ties with Israel. Nobody paid any
attention to it.
Israel's real answer to The Hague, senior
officials say, is the disengagement plan. Withdrawing from Gaza and the
northern West Bank will prove that Israel does not seek to perpetuate the
occupation and annexation.
However, the ICJ ruling will make it
more difficult for Israel to avoid carrying out the disengagement next
year. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom heard many statements of support in
Washington last week, but also hints that the support is conditional on
Israel keeping its promises.
"If we remain with The Hague and
don't carry out the disengagement, we will be that much closer to becoming
South Africa," a diplomatic source warned yesterday.