MIDDLE EAST:Palestinians living in a village at the centre of violent weekly protests against Israel's controversial West Bank barrier won a Supreme Court battle yesterday to have it rerouted.
Citing hardships facing residents of Bil'in, a three-justice panel ordered the Israeli government and military to ensure that a section of the barrier set to cut through the village's farmland should circumvent it instead. This would eventually allow villagers to reclaim some of the large slice of their farmland which has been cut off from them for nearly three years.
Ruling on an appeal lodged by Bil'in residents two years ago, the court said that the current route risked causing "significant harm to the quality of life".
Chief justice Dorit Beinish said: "We were not convinced that it is necessary for security/military reasons to retain the current route that passes on Bil'in's lands."
Israel's defence ministry said that it would "study the ruling and respect it".
Israeli security forces and protesters, including left-wing Israelis and pro-Palestinian activists from abroad, have been squaring off in weekly Friday confrontations in Bil'in in which demonstrators throw rocks and soldiers fire tear-gas and rubber bullets.
A United Nations report issued this year said that Israel has completed more than half of the planned 720km (430 mile) barrier in the West Bank.
The International Court of Justice says that the barrier is illegal because it cuts through land which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel says that the vast network of concrete barriers and razor-wire fencing stops suicide-bombers.