High Court of Justice: the new route in Bil'ín is also illegal

15/12/2008

Source : AATW Discussion List

by Nir

In a rare decision released today (December 15, 2008), the HCJ ruled that the second amended route of the barrier proposed by the State in the lands of Bil’in is also illegal. Judges Beinish, Rivlin and Prokachya concluded that the proposed route violates the Court ruling from September 2007, and ordered the State to pay the residents of Bil’in legal expenses of 10,000 shekels.

In it decision the HCJ ordered the State to plan the new barrier in Bil’in according to clear and detailed criteria. In addition to criteria detailed in previous HCJ decisions, this time the Court described clearly the most important criterion: "the security consideration that would determine the new route will take into account existing buildings [in the settlement] and not plans for future construction. The security distances will be measured from existing buildings and not from planned buildings that have not yet been constructed". These things refer to both the Matityahu East and the Ne’ot Ha-Pisga neighborhoods – both in the settlement of Modi’in Illit.

If implemented, the HCJ decision of today will return the residents of Bil’in approximately one half of the lands taken by the existing barrier.

High Court of Justice decision (hebrew)