Annual Report - Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Annexation Wall in the West Bank
IOF have continued to construct the Annexation Wall inside the occupied West Bank,
in violation of international humanitarian law and the Advisory Opinion issued by the
International Court of Justice in Hague on 9 July 2004. In 2005, the construction was
mainly focused around occupied East Jerusalem, in spite of the petitions submitted to
courts by Palestinian civilians living in villages located around the town, whose
properties were destroyed or confiscated. IOF also continued to construct sections of
the wall in other Palestinian districts, especially Bethlehem and Hebron, and near
large settlements, such as “Ariel” near Nablus. The construction in “Ariel” took place
at least 22 kilometers inside West Bank Territory.
As the Israeli government declared its unilateral Disengagement Plan from the Gaza
Strip, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other ministers unleashed plans of
settlement expansion in the West Bank, and acceleration of construction of the
Annexation Wall around occupied East Jerusalem. They decided to complete the
construction of the Wall around the city either by the end of 2005 or March 2006.
Thus, Israel has decided the future of the occupied city and has effectively annexed it
in violation of international humanitarian law.
The construction of the Wall by IOF in the OPT violates a general principle of
international humanitarian law that the occupying power is prohibited from changing
the nature of the territory it occupies except for military necessities or unless it is
deemed beneficial for the population of the occupied territories. The construction of
the Wall is not beneficial for the Palestinian population and can never be justified as a
military necessity, contrary to Israeli claims of its security necessity.
On 1 December 2005, the Israeli Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni stated that “the Israeli
High Court issue judicial rulings to decide the borders of Israel through the separating
fence.” This statement contradicts the Israeli attorney general’s office, which has
repeatedly claimed that the Wall is being constructed for security purposes rather than
political ones and that it is a temporary means to protect security. 24
PCHR has emphasized since Israel started to construct the Annexation Wall in the
West Bank that the Wall represents the most recent and blatant form of the Israeli
policy of territorial expansion. It also violates international humanitarian law in that it
effectively seeks to disrupt the geographical contiguity of the West Bank and, more
dangerously, to annex occupied Palestinian land to Israel. Moreover, the methods
used by IOF in the construction of the Wall violate international human rights law and
international humanitarian law, particularly the Forth Geneva Convention Relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, whose article 147 prohibits
extensive destruction and appropriation of property.
On 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice in the Hague issued its advisory
opinion regarding the legal consequences of the Wall being constructed by Israel in
the OPT, including Jerusalem, in response to a request by a UN General Assembly
24 The Israeli attorney general's office admitted for the first time in its response to a petition submitted
by residents of 'Azzoun village, north of Qalqilya that not only security considerations decide the route
of the Wall. It also demanded the Israeli High Court to approve the original route of the Wall, claiming
that changing the route would be "too costly." For more details, see Haaretz, 4 July 2005.
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