Zionists extend wall despite ruling

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Haaretz 18 Aug by Nir Hasson *-- *The Defense Ministry resumed construction
on Monday of the separation barrier near Beit Jala, south of Jerusalem,
even though the High Court of Justice had invalidated the building of the
barrier in that region and ordered the state to reconsider it. On Monday,
heavy equipment came to the area and uprooted olive trees and earthwork in
preparation for the barrier’s construction in the Cremisan Valley,
between the city of Beit Jala and the 'settlement' colony of Har Gilo and the
village of Walaja. After nine years of legal proceedings, the High Court of
Justice in April accepted a petition against the route of the barrier that
had been filed by landowners, the Walaja town council and the Roman
Catholic Cremisan Monastery and its related convent. The convent and the
monastery would have been separated from one another by the barrier, while
the landowners said they would be separated from their lands. “The
respondents must swiftly reconsider the various alternatives for the
separation fence route in this section,” the justices wrote. Despite this,
only three weeks after the ruling, attorney Giat Nasser, who represents the
residents and the Beit Jala municipality, received a letter from the
Defense Ministry saying it had decided to continue building the barrier
along the invalidated route, except for 200 metres near the monastery and
convent that would remain a “hole” in the barrier. “They apparently haven’t
reconciled themselves to the ruling,” said Nasser. “What they’re doing is
‘feeding’ the court, stage by stage. After they build the fence they’ll say
it’s already up, then they’ll ask to build the loops around the
monasteries, because there won’t be any choice.” Nasser filed another
petition against the barrier last month and asked for an interim injunction
to prevent the work from starting. But although such an injunction had been
in place for nine years, Supreme Court Justice Uri Shoham refused to renew
the injunction, allowing the work to proceed. Now Nasser is demanding an
urgent hearing of his petition. “This is the quietest area and there are no
problems here,” Beit Jala Mayor Nicola Khamis said on Monday. “Today they
uprooted 1,500-year-old trees. How they want us to live here in peace, I
don’t know.”