Israel Scrambles to Defend Fence

Israel is to make minor changes to the route of its "security fence" through the occupied West Bank after lawyers warned that the present path may be indefensible in court.

Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, made the announcement to a parliamentary committee yesterday ahead of a high court hearing next month challenging the legality of building the vast steel and concrete barrier on Palestinian land.

He denied that the modifications were also influenced by a second case before the international court of justice in the Hague, brought by the UN.

Mr Sharon defended the barrier, which the government says will be about 700km (450 miles) long and encircle the bulk of the Palestinian population. He said the 160km built so far had been successful in preventing suicide bombings, but admitted it was "unsatisfactory in the harm it does to Palestinian daily lives".

The government said it would examine completed portions of the barrier to see whether it was necessary to cage some Palestinian villages and separate people from agricultural land, and consider changing the route of the parts still to be built. But officials said changes would be relatively minor.

Mr Sharon acknowledged that the decision was influenced by the "difficult opinion" of Israel's acting attorney general, Edna Arbel, who said she would have trouble defending portions of the route to the high court.

The government is divided over whether to fight the case in the Hague. A deputy prime minister, Yosef Lapid, believes it would be wise to do so, even if Israel loses, because the court will be a battle ground for international opinion.

He has warned that the barrier through the West Bank could result in Israel being seen in the same light as apartheid South Africa.

But the foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, said Israel should concentrate on challenging the international court's right to hear the case.

Officials are already trying to undermine the court by noting that three of the judges are Muslim, and so presumed to be prejudiced against Israel.

Meanwhile Israel's prisons chief said yesterday he would deny a request to get married from the man who assassinated the prime minister in 1995, Yitzhak Rabin.

Yigal Amir wants to marry Larisa Trimbobler, a mother of four who immigrated from the former Soviet Union and deserted her husband for him.