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OIC at Hague: Link between suicide attacks, Israeli 'terror'
Last Update: 25/02/2004
By Sharon Sadeh and Tali Nir, Haaretz Correspondents, and Reuters
Reproduced with Permisssion from ©
Haaretz Daily
THE HAGUE - The final day of hearings into the legality of the
West Bank separation fence Israel is building ended at the International
Court of Justice on Wednesday after dozens of Muslim countries backed
the Palestinian challenge to the barrier.
French lawyer Monique Chemillier-Gendreau, counsel for the the
57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, said suicide bombings
and other attacks against Israel should not be viewed in a vacuum.
"They have to be linked to the far more bloody terror by Israel
against the Palestinians since its founding," she said.
"With the wall there is no longer a viable Palestine thus
no peace possible between the two states," said Chemillier-Gendreau.
The Arab League and OIC - representing more than 50 countries -
followed Sudan in raising their objections at the Hague court.
In the West Bank itself, hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed
with security forces Wednesday near to where work has begun on a
new section of the fence. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets
to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators.
"The action of the construction of the wall defies and violates
international law and is a wrongful act that should cease immediately,"
Abuelgasim Idris, Sudan's ambassador to the Netherlands, told the
opening of the final session.
European Parliament: fence will make Palestinian state unviable
On Tuesday, the president of the European Parliament, Pat Cox of
Ireland, said that he believes in the road map peace plan and in
a two-state solution, but warned that the construction of the fence
is making the establishment of a Palestinian state nearly impossible.
Cox said that the European Parliament fears that the separation
fence is inching further into the territory of the West Bank, in
such a degree that the cantonization of the Palestinian territory
begins to raise the question about the viability of a Palestinian
state.
"The progressive cantonization and diminution of the West
Bank is becoming a fundamental problem for those who believe in
a viable and sustainable two-state solution," Cox said.
"We accept of course that the government of Israel has the
duty, right and responsibility to protect its citizens; terrorism
by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah and other forces is in itself
a huge part of the problem," he added.
Cox also said that the EU parliament would not allow any whitewashing
of the investigation carried out by EU's anti-fraud unit (OLAF)
into the way the Palestinian Authority is using money sent by the
EU. "The European parliament has sent three senior MPs (...)
to the territories, to examine the issue of Palestinian terror,"
Cox said. "Their findings would be presented to the parliament
and will be accessible to everyone."
On Tuesday, Jordan led the continuing assault on the barrier, warning
that the structure threatens the future stability of the kingdom,
which signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1994.
Unlike other countries supporting the Palestinians this week, Jordan
views the Israeli barrier as a direct threat, fearing the barrier
will make life so hard for Palestinians that they will flee into
the neighboring kingdom, straining its resources and upsetting a
delicate demographic balance.
"With the exception of the Palestinians themselves, we feel
we Jordanians are the ones who could be most affected by Israel's
decision to place the wall where it has and where it intends to
do so in the near future," Prince Zeid Al Hussein, head of
the Jordanian delegation, told the court.
Hussein called suicide bombings "horrific." But he also
said they must be seen in the context of Israel's four-decade occupation
of the West Bank and Gaza, which he called "dominating ...
and degrading" to the Palestinian population.
Sir Arthur Watts, counsel for the Jordanians, attacked Israel's
stance that the barrier is a temporary security measure. Showing
the justices a map of a proposed route of the barrier, he said the
structure is meant to connect Israel proper with its settlements
in the West Bank.
"The plan stretches for the most part well within the occupied
territory," he said. "This wall is not primarily about
the defense of Israel's territory."
"If the wall defends anything, it is ... the position of Israeli
settlements in the occupied territories," he said, adding that
there is "no right to self-defense to that which is in itself
unlawful."
Although the case is technically confined to issues surrounding
the barrier, Watts' comments were the latest to question Israel's
occupation policies.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday dismissed the hearings as
an "international circus" and vowed to keep building fences.
He told Yedioth Ahronoth that the ICJ hearings is "a campaign
of hypocrisy currently being staged against Israel in the international
circus in The Hague ... I will build the security fence and will
complete it."
In Ramallah, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat voiced
confidence that the World Court would reach the "right decision."
The court's ruling will not be binding. But it could influence
world opinion and the Palestinians hope it could pave the way for
international sanctions against Israel.
In front of the court's Peace Palace building on Tuesday, about
150 pro-Israeli demonstrators, some wrapped in Israeli flags, sang
peace songs beside the skeleton of a Jerusalem bus in which a Palestinian
suicide bomber killed 11 people last month.
Other countries presenting their opposition to the fence Tuesday
included Cuba, which said the barrier turned Palestinians into a
"population of prisoners" and Indonesia, the most populous
Muslim country, which called on the court to declare the barrier
illegal.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissed the dozen countries
supporting the Palestinian case as "the usual collection of
dictatorships and Arab states against Israel."
Belize, a tiny Central American nation with little at stake in
the Middle East, stressed Israel's right to defend its citizens
but it, too, urged the court to rule against the barrier.