Israel May Redraw Path of Barrier

Israeli planners are sketching possible new routes for unbuilt portions of the West Bank barrier that would bring it closer to Israel in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that found the current path harms Palestinians, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Military officials have ordered that the route be redrawn to steer well clear of Palestinian homes and to keep the barrier from coming between Palestinian farmers and their land when possible, ministry spokeswoman Rachel Niedak-Ashkenazi said.

She said the review also was meant to ensure that Palestinian villages would not be encircled by future portions of the barrier. But Niedak-Ashkenazi cautioned that easing the impact may not always be possible.

The changes take into account “the principle laid by the Israeli Supreme Court -- namely, proportionality between security considerations and humanitarian considerations,” she said.

Palestinians say the barrier’s snaking route inside the West Bank has separated farmers from their crops and enclosed villages, jeopardizing livelihoods, keeping children from schools and interfering with family life.

Critics also charge that the planned 437-mile barrier, which is about one-third complete, amounts to an annexation of land that might be part of a future Palestinian state.

Alternative paths for the divider -- which is a combination of wire fences, concrete walls, trenches and patrol roads -- will be forwarded to top military officials within two weeks, Niedak-Ashkenazi said.

The barrier, which in some places follows the edge of the West Bank but in others plunges deep inside the territory, is credited by Israeli security officials with helping reduce suicide bombings in Israel.

Alterations would apply only to sections that are yet to be built. Niedak-Ashkenazi said there were no plans to remove existing segments.

The modifications are in response to a June 30 ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court that ordered Israel to reroute a planned 18-mile section to avoid violating the rights of Palestinians in its path. That ruling set the stage for legal challenges to other unbuilt segments, prompting defense officials to reexamine their plans.

Though Israeli officials have promised to abide by the high court decision, they have rejected a separate ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague last week that said the barrier violated international law because it infringed Palestinians’ freedom of movement and amounted to a de facto annexation of land.

The world court’s decision was issued as a nonbinding advisory opinion to the United Nations General Assembly. Israel maintains that the tribunal lacks legal jurisdiction to rule on the barrier.

The project was on the agenda during meetings here Tuesday among two senior U.S. diplomats -- Stephen Hadley, deputy national security advisor, and Elliott Abrams, a Middle East expert with the National Security Council -- and top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The officials also discussed Sharon’s plan to pull Israeli troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip and Israel’s promise to dismantle West Bank outposts, offshoots of Jewish settlements that are seen by critics as hindrances to peace.

Israel has vowed to tear down outposts and freeze construction of established settlements under terms of a U.S.-backed peace plan. But the Bush administration has expressed increasing frustration at the halting progress in removing the outposts.

“Prime Minister Sharon said that he is faithful to the commitments that Israel has taken upon itself and to his intention to carry them out as soon as possible,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement after Tuesday’s session.

In other developments Tuesday, leaders of the opposition Labor Party authorized party chief Shimon Peres to begin negotiations with Sharon over joining the government.

Sharon’s fragile coalition, led by the right-leaning Likud Party, lacks a parliamentary majority since the departure of several right-wing allies opposed to the plan to abandon Gaza. Enlisting Labor would solidify Sharon’s hold on power, but it risks sparking a rebellion among Likud hard-liners.

Sharon made similar overtures to two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, raising the possibility of a coalition overhaul that might not include Labor.