LATimes... ISRAEL: Six years later, UN says barrier is still a big problem

LATimes... ISRAEL: Six years later, UN says barrier is still a big problem

Six years ago, on July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague gave an advisory opinion on Israel's construction of a part-concrete, part-fence barrier running along its borders with the West Bank. The court stated that in addition to being "contrary to international law," the construction of the barrier does not justify Israel's security objectives.

Since then, United Nations officials operating in the occupied Palestinian territories have marked the anniversary of this opinion with heartbreaking stories of the impact of the barrier on the lives and livelihood of almost three million Palestinians living in the West Bank, but mainly those caught between the barrier and the Israeli border, in what has been termed the "seam zone."

UN officials from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the occupied Palestinian territories (OCHA), the World Health Organization and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees warned this week that unabated construction of the barrier continues to have adverse effects on the everyday lives of Palestinians.

They said the barrier and Israeli military laws associated with it had made it very difficult for Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to reach medical facilities in Jerusalem without first obtaining a permit from the army. They said it sometimes takes patients several days to get a permit for any of East Jerusalem's six specialized hospitals.

Farmers have also had difficulty reaching their farm land in the seam zone, officials said.

Currently there are 57 barrier gates which open on a daily, seasonal or seasonal-weekly basis, officials said.

The majority of the gates are open only during the olive harvest season and usually for limited periods during the day. As "visitors," farmers are not permitted to stay on their land overnight and must return at the last gate opening time, officials added.

The combination of the restricted allocation of visitor permits and the limited number and opening times of the barrier gates has severely curtailed agricultural practice and undermined rural livelihoods, officials said....READ MORE