Israeli court issues injunctions against sections of security barrier

Published: 2004-08-10

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- The Israeli Supreme Court has issued temporary injunctions against further construction on two sections of the security barrier the government is building in Palestinian territories. A hearing on another temporary injunction imposed on a section of the barrier alongside the main road connecting northern Jerusalem and Ramallah, West Bank, is scheduled for Aug. 19. The current planned route for the barrier encircles the A-Ram neighborhood, home to some 60,000 Palestinians, and would separate the area from East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. The two other temporary injunctions, issued in July, include prohibiting the completion of the barrier near Nu'man, a village southeast of Jerusalem at the border of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour, West Bank. Although villagers carry Palestinian identification cards, the planned route of the wall would cut off villagers from the rest of the West Bank. According to B'tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the injunction also prohibits Israel from arresting or expelling the 200 village residents, to whom Israel has refused to grant permanent residency status, despite claiming the village is within Jerusalem's municipal borders.

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