Israel to alter WBank barrier route near Qalqilya

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel's defence ministry will alter the route of the controversial separation barrier to allow Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank to access their land, the farmers' lawyer said on Monday.

"Ministry representatives have told the (High) Court the authorities are prepared to move the route further to the west, closer to the Israeli border," said Nasarat Dakwar, a member of the Israeli association for the defence of civil rights.

The decision comes after five years of legal battles over the route of the barrier north of the West Bank town of Qalqilya.

In 2003, Palestinians in the nearby villages of Falamiya and Jayyus had petitioned the High Court to order the state to move the barrier, saying it cut them off from their farmlands....