Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will bring the
revised route of the separation fence around Gush
Etzion and the South Hebron Hills to the cabinet
for approval next month, following the January 9
election for a new Palestinian Authority
chairman.
The route's approval could spark conflict between
Israel and the new Palestinian leadership, as the
fence will penetrate deeply into the West Bank in
order to encompass the Gush Etzion settlements.
The revised route will encompass 10 Israeli
settlements with some 50,000 residents, and four
Palestinian villages with some 18,000 residents.
A sizable amount of Palestinian land in the
Bethlehem area will also end up on the Israeli
side of the fence.
The route was revised following a June 30 High
Court of Justice ruling that invalidated a
different section of the fence, on the grounds
that it caused too much harm to local
Palestinians. The revisions are designed to
reduce the hardship that the fence will cause to
Palestinian villagers in the Gush Etzion area, in
the hope of enabling it to survive the High
Court's scrutiny. For the same reason, the
revised plan also includes more crossing points
in the fence and longer opening hours for these
crossings.
In the South Hebron Hills region, the new route
will run along the Green Line, whereas the old
route had curved into the West Bank to encompass
five Israeli settlements, thereby also swallowing
a sizable amount of Palestinian land. It was
approved by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in
October, but Sharon did not want to bring it to
the cabinet until he could also bring the new
Gush Etzion route.
Government sources said that this "package deal"
has two purposes: To soften international
criticism of the Gush Etzion section by linking
it with the concessions in the South Hebron Hills
region, and to mute rightist criticism of these
concessions by linking it to the enclosure of the
Gush Etzion settlements.
Work on the Gush Etzion section is slated to
start this spring. The new route, the product of
intensive discussions between the Defense and
Justice ministries, will be presented to Sharon
next week.
