Last update - 00:00 15/07/2007
Court halts construction of wall between Arab, Jewish towns
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
The Tel Aviv District Court issued a temporary injunction on Sunday prohibiting the residents of Moshav Nir Zvi from constructing a wall separating their agricultural lands from the Arab neighborhood of Pardes Snir in Lod.
The injunction was issued until the petitions submitted by Arab residents could be heard, which is expected to take some time.
Justice Kobi Vardi ruled that halting the construction of the wall would not worsen the situation of the residents of Nir Zvi, while the construction of the four-meter-high wall would "substantially worsen" the situation of the Arab residents of Lod.
Following a request by the Nir Zvi residents, the construction of the separation wall was approved by the government in 2002 at a total cost of NIS 3 million, in hopes that it would help lower the number of crimes in the affluent community.
Until now, only a few dozen meters of the wall have been built. The Arab residents of Lod, with the help of the rights group Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights and the law clinic at Tel Aviv University, submitted petitions against the construction of the wall to the district court and the Supreme Court.
Nili Baruch, a city planner active in "Bimkom," said in response that the court decision "prevents facts on the ground from being established on an issue with far-reaching moral and social implications."
Baruch added that "Bimkom" would continue to act against what she called "the phenomenon in Israel of fencing and enclosing" and against "the establishment of physical walls between different communities in Israel."