Human Rights for Change on Israel's Wall

International Court of Justice must not be deterred from ruling on the legality of Israel's Wall

HUMAN RIGHTS FOR CHANGE
Organisation for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights

PRESS RELEASE: February 2004

Israel's Security Wall and International Law

In advance of the International Court of Justice hearings on the legality of Israel’s Wall in the West Bank Human Rights for Change seeks to draw attention to the violations of international law resulting from the Wall’s construction. In its report entitled ‘The Violence of Construction: Israel’s Security Wall and International Law’ the Galway-based human rights group analyses the legality of this enterprise on three principle issues: the confiscation and destruction of property the construction entails; the freedom of movement implications; and with regard to the prohibition on the acquisition of territory through the use of force.

The report finds that Israel violates fundamental rules of international humanitarian law and human rights law by the construction of this wall. The Wall's stated purpose of security, of preventing Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israel and killing innocent Israelis, has been undermined by the actual route of the Wall. It runs entirely within the West Bank, not on the recognized Green line. Human Rights for Change condemns the de facto annexation of large swathes of West Bank territory into Israel that the construction of this wall entails.

The report’s author, Michael Kearney, a founding member of Human Rights for Change, spent several months in the West Bank as a human rights monitor and has observed that “The result of this wall, and the physical facts presented by settlements and by-pass roads, is the pre-emption of any possible realisation of Palestinian self-determination in the form of an independent and sovereign State in the West Bank and Gaza but also, more importantly, any hopes for peace in the region”.

The organisation also condemns attempts by Israel, the United States and the EU to prevent the International Court of Justice from ruling on this issue. Claims that the subject matter is too political for the court to address are hollow and dangerous and have rightfully been ignored by the Court.

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‘The Violence of Construction: Israel’s Security Wall and International Law’ is available at: http://www.humanrightsforchange.org/pospap02.htm

Contact: michael@humarightsforchange.org

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Human Rights for Change is a group of human rights activists and international legal scholars who seek to promote the protection of human rights through reporting and documenting human rights issues, increasing awareness through the dissemination of information, advocacy and lobbying, creative action, education, monitoring the media and by providing legal assistance, in particular to NGOs in the developing world. This group believes that global inequalities and imbalances can be redressed through the protection and promotion of universal human rights.