Israel Rejects ICJ's Opinion on Security Barrier as 'Imbalanced'
BY BENNY AVNI - Special to the Sun
February 24, 2005

UNITED NATIONS - Rejecting last year's advisory opinion on Israel's security barrier by an international court, Israel yesterday set itself on a collision course with several international institutions at a time when it is reducing other points of dispute with the Arab world.
Shortly after Prime Minister Sharon's Cabinet approved the plan to uproot Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, the attorney general's office yesterday issued a long legal document that represented the first official rebuttal to last July's opinion of the International Court of Justice. The attorney general's opinion was in response to the Israeli Supreme Court's order for the government to answer the Hague based ICJ's advisory opinion, which said that Israel's security barrier was illegal and called for its dismantlement.
Asserting that the ICJ decision was based on incomplete, general, inaccurate, and imbalanced data, which were submitted by several sources including Secretary-General Annan, the attorney general called the opinion inconsistent with international law, adding that Israel, which was not a party to the General Assembly's resolution to refer the barrier issue to the ICJ, is not obligated to abide by it. Mr. Annan disagreed. His aide, Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, briefed the Security Council on Tuesday, and said that regarding the barrier, We reiterate our call on Israel to abide by its legal obligations as set forth in the advisory opinion of the ICJ.
Jerusalem officials stressed yesterday that the attorney general's opinion was an answer to the Israeli Supreme Court, which they see as the only relevant legal body in the case. Some predicted that the Jerusalem court would adopt the opinion and set a collision course with the ICJ, Which is as it should be, Israel's ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, told The New York Sun.
Mr. Baker, who in his former capacity as the Foreign Ministry's legal adviser led Israel's fight against the ICJ, added that the opinion in The Hague was incorrect, and didn't base itself on the situation on the ground. Therefore, he said, it should be rejected.
Other officials added that the ICJ neglected to mention the terror attacks that the barrier was meant to address. In addition, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told the Sun, the government has abided by the Supreme Court's order to minimize damage suffered by the Palestinian Arab population. As result, he said, the most recent route, approved this week by the Cabinet, reduces by more than 50% the intrusion of the fence into the West Bank.
In a November 2003 report, which was the basis for the ICJ's opinion, Mr. Annan cited an Israeli official map to assert that 16.6% of the West Bank's area would remain on the Israeli side of the barrier. The route approved by Mr. Sharon's Cabinet earlier this week, however, leaves only 7% on the Israeli side, with the barrier adhering almost entirely to the green line of 1967.
Mr. Sharon's separation plan is intimately linked to the barrier, which is seen by many as his proposed border between Israel and the envisioned future state of Palestine. The leading candidate for the post of Palestinian foreign minister, Nasser al Qidwa, however, was the main force behind the U.N.'s motions that set up last summer's ICJ opinion, and is known as a fierce opponent of the barrier.