French FM calls for breaking the siege off Arafat; Israeli court states to change the path of the seperation wall
Palestine-France, Politics, 7/1/2004

The Israeli supreme court has ordered changes to the path of the separation wall built by Israel in the West Bank, at a time when the Amnesty International is to issue a decision on July over the legitimacy of the wall.

The court abrogated the decisions taken by the Israeli authorities, according to which some 50,000 dunnums of the Palestinian territories were taken to build the isolation wall on it to the northern west of Jerusalem.

Thereby the decision of the court stopped work in almost 30 out of 40 Km in the said area, calling on the army of searching for alternative tracks for the wall in the area. The court indicated that the confiscation decisions for building the wall greatly harmed the life of 35,000 Palestinians.

However, the case which was considered by the Israeli supreme court yesterday was submitted by several Palestinian villages to the north west of Jerusalem within other 20 cases against the wall which is extended along 190 Km and will be also extended for other hundreds of kilometers.

In the first reaction of the Israeli government to the decision, the Israeli ministry of defense said it will honor the decision of the court. In a statement, the ministry said that the " security officials in Israel will implement the decision of the court and will set a new track for the wall taking into account directives issued by the court." The Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qurei' said in this regard that this wall should be removed ultimately, noting that the matter is not linked to the path of the wall, rather in its being a wall inside the Palestinian territories.

On the other hand, the French Foreign minister Michael Barnieh said yesterday in conclusion of his talks with Qurei' that the situation imposed by Israel on the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is humiliating and an end should be put to it, demanding the lift of siege from Arafat, whom he considered the elected legitimate President for the Palestinian people.

On Tuesday, the French Foreign minister held talks with President Arafat and stressed France support for the deployment of International forces after the due Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

For his part, Arafat vowed yesterday in Ramullah in the West Bank to re-organize his security forces in the context of a Palestinian decision.

At the field level, an Israeli military source said that one officer in the Israeli army was slightly injured near Ramullah where one explosive was thrown at his vehicle while he was passing by the area.

The source said that the occupation army detained on Tuesday nine Palestinian activists including three members in the Islamic resistance movement ( Hamas).

Previous Stories:
  Assuming the risk of peace in the Middle East - Op-ed by Dominique de Villepin published in the daily newspaper "Al Hayat"   (9/22/2003)
  France : Sidestepping Arafat has and will produce the opposite results to peace   (9/20/2003)
  Arafat hold telephone talks with Chirac   (3/27/2003)

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