The Supreme Court has issued a restraining order against continued construction of the partition wall near Efrat in Gush Etzion. The reason: Harm done to local Arabs.
Seven Arabs had petitioned against the wall's route east and southeast of Efrat, a city 15 kilometers south of Jerusalem. The Court accepted their claim that the wall, a five-meter high concrete barrier designed to keep out terrorists, separates them from their fields. The petitioners suggested that the wall be moved to the west - closer to Efrat - or be replaced by "alternative security measures." Some Arabs have even demanded, though not yet in court, that the area between the main highway and Efrat itself be walled off from Jews.
The judges instructed the army to present, within ten days, a new proposal that would lessen the damage done to Palestinian Authority fields while providing "fitting security" for the residents of Efrat. The Court also said that the Arab petitioners would then have ten more days to respond to the new proposal.
Women in Green co-founder Nadia Matar, a resident of Efrat, told Arutz-7's Ruti Avraham that the Court had essentially given the local Jewish population a three-week "window of opportunity" to wage a struggle against the wall altogether. Many residents oppose the wall because it will largely turn Gush Etzion into a form of ghetto.
"I am furious at the municipal Gush Etzion leadership," Matar said, "because it has not waged a principled struggle against the wall. Already two years ago, the people of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion suggested that we do this - but the local leadership here refused. Instead, they said that the wall was already a 'done deal' and that we should concentrate on 'minimizing damage' by changing the route and the like. But concentrating on 'minimizing damage' is a guarantee for failure; it never works."
"We are now eating the bitter herbs of the failed struggle," Matar said. "But we now have 20 days in which to work. If our leaders are genuine, they will gear up for a full-scale struggle to stop this wall."
Asked if she would be willing to work with other groups such as environmentalists or left-wing organizations, Matar approved only the former: "We cannot work with elements such as the anarchists who demonstrate for Palestinian rights in Bil'in every week and whose goal is the erasure of the State of Israel."