PM approves eastward move of section of separation barrier

[breakaleg]

PM approves eastward move of section of separation barrier
By Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondent

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved the moving of the separation barrier at least five kilometers eastward from the Green Line in the area of Modi'in Ilit, in order to take in the settlements of Nili and Na'aleh, according to security sources and a brief submitted by the state to the High Court of Justice.

The new route will create two Palestinian enclaves containing about 20,000 people. Nili and Na'aleh together have some 1,500 residents.

Olmert approved the change in response to pressure from residents of the two settlements, both of which would have been left outside the barrier, according to the route approved by the cabinet last April. The new route will lengthen the fence by about 12 kilometers, which will cost an estimated NIS 120 million.

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If the cabinet approves Olmert's decision, it will be the first time part of the fence has been moved eastward after receiving cabinet approval. Hitherto, all such changes have moved the fence westward, toward the Green Line, the pre-1967 border that separates Israel and the West Bank.

Nili and Na'aleh, both secular settlements, are located some five kilometers from the Green Line. Originally, they were supposed to be surrounded by a "double fence" ¬ one along the Green Line and one to their east ¬ that would have trapped five Palestinian villages, with some 17,000 residents between them. In June 2004, however, the High Court ordered a section of the fence near Jerusalem dismantled on the grounds that it caused disproportionate harm to local Palestinians, and the defense establishment feared that the court would do the same to the Nili-Na'aleh section. It therefore proposed a new route that eliminated the eastern fence and left Nili and Na'aleh outside the western fence, and in April 2006, the cabinet approved this route.
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/819633.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tom Joad]

2. Amazing, all those protestations here that the annexation wall cannot be moved,

seems like it is quite simple, afterall.

It will make the lives of 20,000 Palestinians more miserable. Probably destroy their communities if they encirculing. This is economic terrorism.

From the story:
The result is that some 17,000 Palestinians will be stuck in an enclave bounded by the fence along the Green Line to the west, and the road and the Nili-Na'aleh fence to the east. Another village, with some 2,000 residents, will be enclosed by the new fence route on three sides.

There is no way that village is going to survive under such conditions, enclosed on three sides. People will be forced to relocate.

South Africa was never like this.

[Englander]

3. The apartheid policy continues.

Create the enclaves whilst protecting the settlements built in the Occupied Territories.

Something from the archives;

'Last update - 17:08 13/08/2004
PM said angry over Olmert's remarks on evacuation
By Aluf Benn, Nadav Shragai and Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondents

Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert spoke Thursday about wide-scale evacuations of West Bank settlements, drawing an irate response from the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Officials there were "extremely unhappy to hear the comments."

Olmert on Thursday visited the settlements of Nili and Na'aleh in the northern West Bank, telling residents "we are heading into a disengagement plan that includes the evacuation of four Samaria settlements. This process is critical to reducing friction with the international community. We will have to evacuate more settlements in the future for this reason.

"This isn't just, but it is necessary in order to remain a democratic Jewish state. The United States is virtually our only friend, but even the U.S. supports retreat to almost the 1967 borders."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=464023&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y