Chilean court rejects demand against Israeli judges
The plaintiffs claim that the barrier is built on occupied land and separates them from their properties and farmland; the judges denied the lawsuits on the grounds that they do not have the authority to intervene in another country's court decisions.
A Chilean court has rejected lawsuits filed in the South American country against three current or former Israeli Supreme Court justices for endorsing the construction of the West Bank separation barrier and the seizure of lands and the property on them from Palestinians.
Chile's Palestinian Federation filed a war crimes lawsuit last week against current Justices Uzi Vogelman and Neal Hendel and retired Justice Asher Grunis, who was president of the court in 2012-2015.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that the stretch of barrier, built on land the international community considers occupied, has separated them from properties and farmland. The group argues that Chile's international agreements allow for suits involving crimes against humanity committed in other countries. But in their ruling, the judges said they did not have the authority to intervene in another country's court decisions.
A Chilean-Palestinian woman who owns land in the Cremisan Valley, which is near Bethlehem, had also filed a lawsuit.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman earlier said the federation's lawsuit had no legal basis.
Chile's Palestinian community is among the worlds largest, with about 350,000 immigrants and their descendants.
Israel says the barrier built beginning in 2002 is needed to keep out Palestinian attackers. Palestinians call the structure an illegal land grab because it frequently juts in and out of the West Bank, placing occupied territory claimed by the Palestinians on the "Israeli" side.
The International Court of Justice, the UN's highest judicial organ, in 2004 issued an advisory opinion saying the barrier was illegal.
