January 29, 2005
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will present the changed route of the separation fence in two parts - Gush Etzion and south Mount Hebron - to the cabinet for approval this week.
The cabinet deliberations are likely to take place two days
prior to the planned meeting between Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas.
Sharon is expected to present to the ministers a "package deal," in
which the fence will move deep inside the territory of Gush Etzion, moving to
the Green Line in its southern section.
Government officials assessed that the cabinet will authorize the new route.
The route of the fence in Gush Etzion is expected to upset the Palestinian
Authority because it intends to include 10 settlements and the town of Efrat
into an Israeli pocket between the cities of Bethlehem and Hebron.
The new route will also include four Palestinian villages with some 18,000
residents, in addition to many properties of Palestinians from Bethlehem.
In recent weeks, Defense Ministry officials and representatives of the Justice
Ministry held intensive talks in an effort to formulate a solution that would
enable Palestinians with property in Gush Etzion to access their land and allow
"normal life" to go on inside the four Palestinian villages.
Gush Etzion council head Shaul Goldstein was active in forcing the fence away
from the populated edge of the settlement community.
In south Mount Hebron, the new fence route was planned on the basis of a Supreme
Court ruling from July 2004 that said the "principle of moderation"
should take precedence in actions that would harm the Palestinian residents. The
new route excludes a number of settlements and thousands of dunams of
Palestinian land.
SOURCE: Haaretz