Barrier juts into the West Bank at several points and cuts off entire villages from their fields, schools and hospitals

THE HAGUE, February 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Arab League and Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) argued that Israel's West Bank barrier was destroying the prospects of peace in the Middle East, as the world court ended hearings into its legality on Wednesday, February 25.

"The wall does not stand between terrorists and potential victims but between the farmer and his land .. the child and its school, patient and doctor, and families who want to unite and the faithful from his or her holy places," the league's chief counsel Michael Bothe told the final day of hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"The wall being constructed in the Palestinian occupied territories presents separation, leads to discrimination ... and destroys real prospects for a fair and lasting peace," he told the panel of judges.

"The effects of the wall are many but all negative. It is an affront to international law (and) adds to the suffering of the Palestinian people."

After the Arab League, the OIC made the final of 15 presentations in a case which was boycotted by Israel on the grounds that it was "beyond the court's competence".

"With the wall, a viable Palestine is no longer possible and therefore no peace (is possible) between the two states," OIC counsel Monique Chemillier-Gendreau said.

"The wall occupies large areas of summarily confiscated Palestinian territory.

"It has been abundantly demonstrated that this huge military installation has led to a massive violation of human rights."

The Palestinians said on the first day of hearings on Monday, February 23, that the barrier was not about security but rather intended to entrench the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Israel, who is occupying most of the Palestinian territories, has adopted a policy of an almost daily incursions, assassinations and detentions against Palestinians. The latest of which took place today when Israeli occupation troops raided the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

On Monday, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse young Palestinians protesting the wall at Abu Dis, in the eastern suburbs of occupied Jerusalem. One Palestinian was injured, a medical source said.

Israel, on the other hand, insists that the barrier, which is expected to stretch for over 700 kilometers by the time it is completed late next year, is vital to put a halt to a wave of attacks on its soil, the latest of which took place on Sunday, February 22, when a 23-year-old Palestinian youth blew himself up  aboard a bus, killing eight Israelis and injuring up to 60 others.

The U.N. General Assembly called on the ICJ  in December 2003 to rule on the legality of the barrier, although any verdict is advisory and non-binding.

The government of Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has warned that any verdict from the court could "undermine" the internationally-backed roadmap plan for peace in the Middle East.

It has also vowed to forge ahead with construction regardless of any opinion from the court which will be non-binding.

"What is in motion at The Hague is an attempt to deny Israel the fundamental right to defend itself. We will not surrender. I will build the security fence and will complete it, as the cabinet decided," Sharon told the Maariv newspaper.

But Bothe said that the barrier itself was undermining the blueprint.

"It's the wall which is an obstacle to a negotiated settlement following the roadmap and not the advisory opinion."

Declaring a close to proceedings, the court's president, Chinese judge Shi Jiuyong, said that "a date and time for the court to announce its rulings" would be set later.

‘One-sided’

Israeli government legal advisor Daniel Taub, who observed proceedings, said they had been completely one-sided.

"There is nothing that we have heard to make us believe it's anything other than an attempt to put people who are trying to defend themselves from terror on trial rather than the terrorists themselves," he told AFP.

He took heart from the decision by the United States, European Union and Russia -- three of the four backers of the roadmap peace plan -- who all boycotted the hearings on the grounds it was an inappropriate venue for such a case.

"We still hope that the court will realize it's a trap," said Taub.

The Israelis' decision to boycott the case showed "they do not have a case worth defending", Michael Tarazi, legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told AFP.

Precedent

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority accused E.U. countries of opposing its legal challenge to the Israeli-built barrier along the West Bank because they feared a ruling by the world court could be used as a precedent against them.

"The frank and sincere truth is that it is not the wall that worries them, it is the court," the Authority's representative to France, Leila Chahid, told Radio France Internationale.

On Monday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the barrier which Israel claims is needed to protect it from suicide bombers was "unlawful" and counter-productive, but a hearing which began the same day at the International Court of Justice in The Hague was inappropriate.

"It is quite inappropriate to take this before the ICJ given that one of the parties to the hearing, the Israelis, have refused consent to the jurisdiction," Straw told reporters in Brussels.

"The ICJ only works effectively where all parties to any hearing accept its jurisdiction," he said, adding that his views were shared by the 15-member European Union as a whole.

A Total Contradiction

Chahid described the E.U. position as "a total contradiction", but said the reason was that some of the bloc's members were afraid that a court ruling might be used against them.

"If this court sets a precedent on the question of the wall in the Palestinian territories, the court becomes a political and diplomatic instrument that could turn against certain European states which have things on their conscience," she said.

Pressed to explain her remarks, she declined to name any country, saying: "It is not within my remit to say which ones."

The 3.4 billion dollar barrier, a montage of razor wire, trenches, steel fencing, cement and watchtowers, juts into the West Bank at several points and cuts off entire villages from their fields, schools and hospitals.

This comes as Israeli bulldozers began work on 42 kilometers (25 miles) of the barrier in the northern West Bank village of Beit Surik despite a protest by residents, an AFP correspondent witnessed Tuesday.

In Beit Surik, around 100 villagers tried to stop two Israeli bulldozers by lying down in front of them and clashes broke out between them and Israeli border police who used sound grenades and beat them with sticks as the bulldozers began leveling a field of olive trees.

One resident, who suffered a head wound, was arrested and taken away by police.