The government and the IDF have decided to move the separation barrier at Bil'in, where Arabs and leftists have staged a five-year long battle against the route of the fence. The High Court has backed their arguments that the barrier cuts off 650 acres of their lands, north of Kfar Saba, but added that security considerations must determine the route.
The agreement represents an unprecedented change in IDF policy, reflecting the views of IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi that the army should not determine the route of the separation barrier. The Sharon government built the fence under the claim that it is being built for security purposes, but critics have warned that is was going to become a border for a future Palestinian Authority state.
The new route will move the barrier closer to the border that existed between 1949 and 1967.