HAARETZ
August 20, 2004
Attorney General Menachem
Mazuz on Thursday warned that the decision on the separation fence by the
International Court of Justice in The Hague could lead to anti-Israel
actions in international forums that could include sanctions.
The
warning accompanied a report delivered Thursday by Mazuz to Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, who requested a month ago that the attorney general set up a
committee to look into the ICJ's decision.
In an advisory opinion
to the UN General Assembly last month, the ICJ said that Israel's fence is
illegal and must be torn down.
"It is difficult to overestimate the
negative ramifications that the ICJ's decision will have on the State of
Israel in various spheres, even on issues beyond the separation fence,"
Mazuz wrote in an accompanying note to Sharon.
"The decision could
gradually have an effect on rulings by Israeli courts about the
administration of military authority in the territories and about the
building of the fence."
Mazuz added: "The decision creates a
political reality for Israel on the international level, that may be used
to expedite actions against Israel in international forums, to the point
where they may result in sanctions."
Mazuz recommends that, at the
earliest possible opportunity, Sharon make changes to bring the separation
fence's route and arrangements in the seam-line areas in line with the
principles fixed by the Israeli High Court of Justice in its June decision
about the fence in the Beit Suriq area (where 30 kilometers of the current
route were disqualified). This, Mazuz says, could lessen tensions in the
international legal arena.
Mazuz also recommends that the corrected
route of the fence be anchored in a new cabinet decision that would send a
message to the world that Israel is upholding international law according
to the decisions of its own courts.
The attorney general also
recommends setting up an interministerial team to study international
developments that will affect Israel, and a legal team that will follow
legal processes abroad and make recommendations.
He proposes that
Israeli spokespeople stress that Israel upholds international law and
accepts the ICJ's opinion, even though it was based on partial, and partly
obsolete, data.
The committee that drew up the 84-page report
consisted of legal experts from the Justice Ministry, the defense
establishment, the Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign
Ministry.
Meanwhile, the High Court of Justice on Thursday gave the
state 30 days to explain the implications of the decision by the ICJ,
concerning the separation fence, on Israel's policy with regard to the
fence.
The prosecution will also have to report to the high court
whether it will refrain from putting up the separation fence beyond the
Green Line.
Thursday's decision was handed down by Supreme Court
President Aharon Barak, and Justices Eliahu Mazza and Mishael Cheshin
during the discussion of seven petitions concerning the building of the
fence in the vicinity of Palestinian villages in the territories and
certain parts of East Jerusalem, including Budrus, Beit Jala and
A-Ram.
During the debate on the fence planned to be built on lands
belonging to the village of Shukba, near Ben-Gurion International Airport,
Barak remarked: "At some stage, we will have to deal with the ruling of
the ICJ at The Hague. Perhaps not in this case, although it appears this
is an appropriate one."
Barak said that his opinion was that it
was necessary to deal with only those parts of the ruling that are
relevant in Israel's eyes.
"The ICJ regards East Jerusalem as
occupied territory," Barak said, "while we do not. The relevant approach
should be toward the villages and not Jerusalem. But we will have to say
something on the subject... and to announce whether or not we accept the
opinion of the ICJ."
Yuval Roitman of the prosecution then pointed
out that the ICJ had handed down an "advisory opinion" and not a "ruling,"
as Barak had called it.
The justices decided to issue an order nisi
concerning all the petitions except the one about setting up the fence in
the A-Ram area, which lies inside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, and
gave the state a month to respond.
Since the hearings are expected
to take several months, the court gave the state permission to continue
building the fence on condition that, if the ruling is against the present
route, the state will remove the fence and compensate the Palestinian
residents.