'Court delay of fence endangering lives'
Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim accuses High Court of endangering lives of Israelis with injunctions ordering halt of construction on security fence
“Experience teaches us that the deadliest attacks were successful because terrorists crossed into the country through incomplete sections of the fence,” Boim told reporters.
Some 275 kilometers have so far been completed of the planned 760-kilometer fence route which stretches from Tirat-Tzvi in the north to the Judean hills facing the Dead Sea.
Only 80 kilometers of the fence are functional and connected to electronic alert sensors.
The High Court issued injunctions halting construction on the fence in the wake of a number of petitions against the state’s planned route of a section of the fence.
The government argues that the legal saga over the fence route is slowing down construction, exposing Israeli citizens to terror attacks as the deadline for completing the fence by the end of 2006 would most likely be missed.
“Delays mean that the security establishment is not yet able to deliver to the Israeli public this life saving security device,” Boim said.
Boim added that the halt of construction on the fence is the soul responsibility of the legal system as the State Prosecutor’s Office “is trying to be more just than the High Court in setting the route” of the fence.
Petitions against the fence route have delayed construction by one and a half years, Boim said. He added that it is unacceptable that only one team of justices headed by Chief Justice Aharon Barak deals with all petitions, stymieing an already slow process.
Most sections to be completed by April 2006
Despite Boim’s complaints, a Defense Ministry source said that by April 2006 construction on most sections of the fence would be completed.
Netsah Masikh, head of the security fence administration in the Ministry said that funds are available and contractors have always met deadlines set by the government.
“Legal delays have prevented us from progressing according to our plans. I estimate that by the end of the first quarter of 2006 we would have completed most of the fence except for the ‘Jerusalem envelop’ and the stretches surrounding settlements,” Masikh said.
