Court rejects West Bank security fence through church lands

Proposed route would have separated Jerusalem area monastery and its sister convent; Defense Ministry told to devise alternative

AP — Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a government proposal to route the West Bank security fence through church properties in a scenic valley outside of Jerusalem, a long-running case that has drawn the interest of Pope Francis.

Israel began building the fence more than a decade ago, saying it prevents Palestinian attacks inside Israel. Palestinians charge that the barrier is mainly a land grab because much of it runs through the West Bank, often zigzagging to include Jewish settlements and additional lands on the Israeli side of the barrier.

Israel’s Defense Ministry had proposed to route the security fence through the Cremisan Valley, leaving a Roman Catholic monastery on the Jerusalem side of the barrier and its sister convent on the West Bank side, and separating Palestinian landowners from their lands.

Israeli authorities had promised access between the monastery and convent, and for the Palestinians to their lands, through gates manned by soldiers.

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The monastery, convent and Palestinian landowners in the area petitioned the court to change the planned route so the security fence would run closer to Jerusalem and keep the valley intact. Palestinian landowners presented their case to Pope Francis on his visit to the Holy Land last year. They said he promised to look into it.

The court Thursday ordered the Defense Ministry to offer an alternative route that poses less of a burden on the local Palestinian residents, as well as the monastery and convent.

An Israeli soldier pins down a Palestinian man who stabbed another soldier near the West Bank security fence, April 2, 2015 (photo credit: IDF spokesperson)

Also on Thursday, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier during an arrest of Palestinians who had sneaked past the security fence on their way into Israel, the military said. The soldier was stabbed in the West Bank alongside the fence. He suffered light injuries and was evacuated to the hospital, the military said.

In a separate incident, Israel arrested a female Palestinian lawmaker from a left-wing militant group for disobeying an Israeli order barring her from the city of Ramallah.

The military said it arrested Khalida Jarrar, a senior political leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, early Thursday due to “substantial concerns about the safety and security of the region.”

Last year, the military confined her movement to the city of Jericho and its surroundings. The army said the restraining order was based on her “incitement and involvement in terror.” It gave no further details.

Her husband, Ghassan Jarrar, said she was arrested from their Ramallah home. She had long flouted the Israeli ban.

The military said it has not decided whether to press charges.