Jordan Times
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
'Jordan to help protect archaeological sites threatened by Israeli wall'
AMMAN (JT) — Jordan will support a Palestinian plea at UNESCO to help preserve about 1,000 archaeological sites threatened by the separation wall Israel is constructing in the Palestinian territories, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.At a meeting on Tuesday with Palestinian Minister of Culture Yahaya Yakhluf, Acting Prime Minister Mohammad Halaiqa said Jordan is keen on helping the Palestinians sustain their cultural and other institutions.
Halaiqa briefed Yakhluf on Jordan's filing of a motion at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in collaboration with the Arab League and international legal experts, against the Israeli barrier, calling it a threat to the Kingdom's national interests and the future of the Middle East.
Israel says the barrier is aimed at preventing Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets, while the Palestinians, calling it the “apartheid wall,” insist that it preempts the borders of their future state.
The UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to rule on the barrier, although the court's verdict will be nonbinding.
The hearings will start in the last week of this month.
According to a report by Jordanian experts, about a quarter million Palestinians will be isolated by the structure snaking in the West Bank, holding back 16 per cent of its total area, or 915,000 dunums.
Residents of 71 Palestinian towns and villages will be separated from their farmlands, but the total number of villages and towns that will be affected by the barrier is 206, inhabited by about 875,000 Palestinians or 38 per cent of the West Bank's population, the document said.