Court orders IDF to change route of Bil'in barrier The High Court of Justice on Tuesday ordered the IDF to change the route of the security fence in the area of Bil'in after Palestinian villagers claimed the current route led to an annexation of their agricultural lands.
Following the court ruling, the IDF will be forced to move the section of the fence which annexed the Palestinian land, scuttling the planned expansion of the contentious Matityahu East neighborhood in Modi'in Ilit.
Some 575 acres, or about 2,300 dunams - more than half of Bil'in's land - were confiscated to build the wide barrier loop around the expanding Modi'in Illit.
The court decision was a victory for dozens of Israeli, Palestinian and foreign activists who for some two years have trudged to the small section of the security barrier every Friday in a joint protest aimed at preventing its construction and forcing its removal.
The protests often turned violent and confrontations with police routinely left protesters with injuries from tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets.
Meanwhile, residents of the Palestinian village, located between Ramallah and Modi'in Ilit, petitioned the Italian court against Heftsiba CEO Boaz Yona, demanding that he stand trial for allegedly building illegally on their land, Army Radio reported on Tuesday.
On January 4, 2006, the Peace Now movement and Bil'in residents, petitioned the High Court of Justice, charging that the apartments under construction by Heftsiba and another company, Green Park, were being built according to a zoning plan which had not been legally sanctioned. Two days later, the court issued an interim injunction instructing the respondents to immediately halt all construction, prevent home purchasers from moving in to finished apartments and desist from transferring ownership deeds to them.
That injunction has been in effect ever since.
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