ISRAEL and the US pledged to defy the International Court of Justice yesterday after the UN’s supreme legal body ruled that the West Bank barrier is illegal and should be pulled down.

The court also ruled that reparations should be paid to thousands of Palestinians who have suffered hardship because of the barrier.

In an uncompromising ruling the court declared that the 430-mile barrier was a “grave infringement” of the rights of Palestinians to work, health, property and education. It insisted that it could not be justified by Israel’s battle to keep suicide bombers out.

“This is an historic day and an historic decision. The international high court decided clearly that this racist wall is illegal to the root,” said Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinian Prime Minister.

However, a senior Israeli government official insisted: “Israel has no reason to submit to a plainly absurd decision which pays no account to the role of the security fence in the fight against terrorism.”

Although the eagerly anticipated ruling is advisory rather than binding, it has huge moral force and was immediately used by Israel’s opponents to push for sanctions.

The court, which was requested to rule on the wall by the UN General Assembly last December, insisted that no other country should give legal recognition to the wall or give Israel help in building it, and said that the UN must decide what enforcement action to take. Israel has previously ignored international rulings; the PLO said that this time it must be forced to comply.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, chief aide to Yassir Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organisation leader, declared: “It is a victory for international law and a real blow for Israel. This decision will lead to the isolation of Israel and the international community should impose sanctions against Israel for it is violating the law and international relations.”

It is the second setback for Israel in a fortnight after its own Supreme Court ruled that the route of the fence must be changed to reduce the hardship it causes to Palestinians. The Israeli Government had unsuccessfully tried to block the court making any verdict, saying that it did not have the legal authority to consider it because it was an internal political matter.

Yesterday Jonathan Peled, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: “The international court in The Hague has no authority to deal with disputes between Israel and the Palestinians.”

The US also dismissed the ruling, saying that the conflict in Israel should be resolved through the peace process. “We do not believe that that is the appropriate forum to resolve what is a political issue. This is an issue that should be resolved through the process that has been put in place,” said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman.

The Israeli Government insists that the barrier has already proved successful at keeping Palestinian suicide bombers out of its cities. However, the PLO says that it is a land grab and will set the borders for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Most of the barrier lies within the territories occupied by Israel after the 1967 war, and weaves in a highly circuitous route in and out of communities, trying to keep Israeli settlers on one side and Palestinian towns on the other. It effectively annexes 975 sq km, or 16.5 per cent, of the occupied land, but has 51 per cent of its water supply, and holds 80 per cent of the Israeli settlers.

The court noted that the barrier separates thousands of Palestinians from their agricultural land, water, schools and hospitals, and that 160,000 would end up living in almost totally encircled areas. In the town of Qalqiliya, 40,000 people would live enclosed by the wall with the only exit being a single military checkpoint that is open only from 7am to 7pm. In its 59-page judgment, the court ruled: “The construction of the wall and its associated regime impede the liberty of the movement of the inhabitants.

They also impede the exercise by the persons concerned of the right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living.” Because the wall separates many Palestinians from their land and water, and leaves them with no other means of subsistence, many are forced to leave. In Qalqiliya, between 6,000 and 8,000 of the population have already moved out. The court decided that the wall deprived the Palestinians of the right to choose their residence, and said that it amounted to the forced deportation of people in an occupied land, in violation of international law.

The court dismissed the Israeli government argument that the wall was justified by its right to self-defence because Israel did not face a threat from another state, and the violence came from within the area that it controls.

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