October 28, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 1, 1424

AL QUDS: The Israeli military has ordered thousands of Palestinians living near the steel and concrete “security fence” throughout the West Bank to obtain special permits to live in their own homes.

Palestinian officials said the order breached a pledge by Israel to the UN security council a fortnight ago that the barrier would not change the legal status of those who live near it, and claimed it was another step toward the annexation of tens of thousands of hectares of Palestinian land.

The order, signed by the Israeli army’s commander in the West Bank, Major General Moshe Kaplinski, said Palestinian land between the fence and the 1967 border, known as the green line, was to be a “closed military zone”.

Any Palestinian who lived in the area would be defined by a new category of “long-term resident” and everyone over the age of 12 would be required to obtain a permit to live in their own homes and travel beyond their villages.

The order said that only Israelis and Jews could enter the designated areas without a pass.

Michael Tarazi, a legal adviser to the Palestinian leadership said: “It is just the latest step in Zionism’s long-standing strategy of taking Palestinian land while ridding that land of the Palestinian population.”

The order would immediately affect about 12,000 Palestinians in 15 villages squeezed between the barrier and the green line. Another 40,000 or more would be in a similar position within months once construction of the fence was completed around the north of Jerusalem.

Many other Palestinians can only gain access to their agricultural land with the special permits.

During a security council debate on a Syrian-sponsored resolution condemning the fence, Dan Gillerman, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said no Palestinians would have their legal rights affected by the barrier.

“It does not annex territories to the state of Israel, nor does it change the status of the land, its ownership, or the legal status of the residents of these areas,” he said.

European diplomatic sources said the military order was so clearly a breach of Mr Gillerman’s undertaking that several countries, including Germany, voted against Israel in a subsequent debate on the barrier at the UN general assembly.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Jonathan Peled, said the order was temporary and not a change in legal status. “What Gillerman promised the security council stands. Legally speaking there is no change in status because it is a temporary decree,” he said.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.