The Hague — The UN's highest judicial authority rules Friday on the legality of the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank in response to Palestinian suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.
The Palestinians say they expect the International Court of Justice to rule in their favour, and officials in Jerusalem said on condition of anonymity they expected a decision critical of Israel.
The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported on its website that the court will declare that the fence violates international law and must be dismantled. The court also will rule that Israel must compensate Palestinians whose land was confiscated for barrier construction, the newspaper reported.
The newspaper said its report was based on court documents it obtained. In an official statement the court's administrator stressed that "the only authentic text is the official text issued by the court," but did not contest the accuracy of the Haaretz report.
The 15-member court's advisory opinions are nonbinding but bear moral, historic and political weight. They can be the basis for action by the UN General Assembly or Security Council.
The court will issue its advisory opinion beginning at 9 a.m. EDT.
"We are confident we will have a positive result," Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN observer, said Thursday.
Israel, hoping to keep the issue low key, sent no senior officials to The Hague and said it would not comment until after the decision is delivered. The ruling likely will be lengthy and complex.
The advisory opinion was sought by the UN General Assembly in December at the Palestinians' request. The court heard three days of testimony in February.
The barrier is a complex of high concrete walls, razor-wire fences, trenches and watch towers. About one-fourth has been completed, much of it close to the pre-1967 border although some of it dips into the West Bank.
The first issue the court likely will address in its opinion is whether it has jurisdiction. Israel, the United States and several European countries urged the court to distance itself from what they called a political rather than a legal question.
If the court says it has jurisdiction and then rules the barrier illegal, the Palestinians will seek a General Assembly resolution demanding that Israel dismantle the wall, Al-Kidwa said. If the Israelis refuse, the Palestinians will seek Security Council enforcement and risk a U.S. veto.
"An advisory opinion is important in itself. It alone should be enough to make a difference" and force Israel to remove the barrier, Mr. al-Kidwa told reporters.
Israel says the barrier is needed to stop Palestinian suicide bombers, who have killed hundreds of Israelis since late 2000. Israel says there has been a sharp drop in infiltrations from the West Bank since barrier construction began, and adds that there have been almost none from Gaza, which has been surrounded by a fence for years.
But Palestinians say the barrier imposes intolerable hardships on innocent people, separating them from schools, agricultural fields or workplaces. They also say the barrier is nothing but an Israeli land grab that will make it impossible to establish an independent state alongside Israel — a primary goal of the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.
Palestinians won some support last week from the Israeli Supreme Court, which ordered the government to reroute a section of the barrier near Jerusalem.
The court said Israel must temper security with human rights and ruled that the disputed section "severely violated" the freedom of movement and "severely impaired" people's livelihoods.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepted the decision and told senior defense and military officials to review the fence's route in problematic areas. Mr. Sharon previously denounced the world court hearings as "a campaign of hypocrisy."
The Supreme Court's ruling was unlikely to influence the outcome of the case in The Hague, where deliberations already were concluded, according to diplomats who have been following the case.
Several Israeli survivors and relatives of bombing victims gathered near the Peace Palace to press their argument that the barrier is essential for Israel's security.
"People in Europe don't understand what a terrorist attack means," said Eliad Moreh, 28, who barely survived a bombing at a Hebrew University cafeteria two years ago that killed her friend sitting across the table.
"I'm afraid the court won't take into consideration the fear, anguish and damage Israel is going through as a result of Palestinian terrorism. If you don't understand that, you can't understand what the fence is all about."
