HEAD AGAINST THE WALL? ISRAEL'S REJECTION OF THE ADVISORY OPINION ON THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF A WALL IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Abstract

In a concise order, issued on 19 August 2004, the Supreme Court of Israel (HCJ) ordered the Israeli government to respond to a new petition brought by a number of Palestinians and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) against the route of the West Bank separation barrier (or separation wall) near the West Bank villages of Boudrous and Shukba. Specifically, the order invited the government to refer to the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of the same barrier. On 23 February 2005 the Office of the Attorney General at the Ministry of Justice filed with the Court the state's response to the petition. More than half of the comprehensive 142-page memorandum submitted by the state addresses the implications of the ICJ advisory opinion on the Wall upon the case at hand. After an exhaustive review of the opinion, the written response concludes that the ‘advisory opinion has no bearing upon the claims at hand, and the claims should be adjudicated in accordance with the factual and normative framework designed by the Supreme Court, as manifested in the Beit Sourik case’. Since the state's response represents the first comprehensive statement of the position of the state of Israel with relation to the ICJ advisory opinion, it is indicative of the degree of influence that the advisory opinion is likely to have upon Israel's future conduct in the Occupied Territories.