Muslim blocs slate wall as hearing ends; Arafat HQs city raided

By: Ahmad Hammadi

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Two Muslim representative blocs on Wednesday put their weight behind a Palestinian challenge to the legality of Israel's West Bank barrier as three-day hearing ended at the World Court.

The 22-member Arab League and 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) testified last in one of the highest profile cases in the court's 58-year history.

“Does this not all bring back to the present the Berlin Wall episode which was dubbed the wall of shame,” Arab League representative Michael Bothe said in the court in The Hague. “The wall is profoundly affecting the living conditions in the Palestinian occupied territories. It leads to migration, to the displacement of major parts of the Palestinian population, to a consolidation of the unlawful Israeli settlements.”

“With the wall there is no longer a viable Palestine, thus no peace possible between the two states,” said Monique Chemillier-Gendreau, legal adviser to the OIC.

In another development, Israel on Wednesday launched biggest raid on Yasser Arafat's headquarters city in months, during which Israeli troops stormed four Palestinian banks and declared a curfew in some districts.

Israeli security sources said there was a “very focused activity” in some parts of Ramallah, but that Arafat himself was not being targeted.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops arrested 19 Palestinians, one of them a woman, during operations in the West Bank.

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