His Excellency Mr. Jan Eliasson
Swedish Ambassador to the UN
President of the UN General Assembly
Office of the President of the General Assembly

Dear Mr. Eliasson

As a Palestinian human rights organisation dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Al-Haq writes to bring to your attention an alarming judgment issued today by the Israeli High Court of Justice. For the first time since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its Advisory Opinion on the construction of the Wall in the OPT on 9 July 2004, the Israeli High Court has ruled on whether the construction therein is lawful as a matter of principle. As you are aware, the ICJ’s Opinion, reflecting binding international law, determined that the Wall’s construction in the OPT by Israel, the Occupying Power, is a violation of its obligations under international law. In stark contrast, the Israeli High Court today held that Israel is entitled to construct the Wall in the OPT. This judgment displays an unjustifiable misinterpretation of international law.

While applying the same international legal framework as the ICJ, the Israeli High Court attempts to rationalise its diametrically opposed conclusion by arguing that the ICJ based its decision on imprecise information and disregarded considerations of security in the construction of the Wall. The judgment of the Israeli High Court concerns a part of the Wall surrounding the Israeli settlement of Alfei Menashe near the West Bank city of Qalqiliya. Yet, the High Court refuses to address the issue of the legal status of the Israeli settlements in the OPT, thereby neglecting a critical point on which all 15 judges of the ICJ agreed – that any part of the Wall built to include settlements on the “Israeli” side of the Wall is ipso facto illegal. Without these settlements, there could be no conceivable security need to build the Wall inside the OPT. This misinterpretation of the applicable law by Israel’s highest judicial body symbolises Israel’s persistent disregard for its international obligations regarding the OPT, including the basic principles of the United Nations (UN) Charter.

On the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon receives praise at the UN General Assembly for the withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank of two percent of the Israeli settlers, the Israeli High Court has put its stamp of approval on the unlawful construction of the Wall in the West Bank. The Wall perpetuates the presence of illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, most notably in and around annexed East Jerusalem. Al-Haq calls on the UN and its Member States not to let Israel’s unilateral withdrawal distract them from this de facto annexation and to immediately fulfil their obligations under international law, as outlined by the ICJ, to end Israel’s illegal construction of the Wall in the OPT.

Sincerely,

Randa Siniora
General Director

Cc:

Chief Justice Ahron Barak
President of the High Court of Israel

His Excellency Mr. Göran Persson
Prime Minister of Sweden
Co-chair of High Level Plenary
UN General Assembly

His Excellency Mr. Omar Bongo Oudimba
President of Gabon
Co-chair of High Level Plenary
UN General Assembly

Ms. Somaia Barghouti
First Counselor
Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN