The opening session of World Court hearings into the legality of Israel's West Bank security barrier has been told that the vast network of walls and fences is, in effect, a 'de facto annexation' of Palestinian land.
Palestinians' permanent observer to the United Nations, Nasser al-Kidwa
The claim was made by the Palestinians' permanent observer to the United Nations, Nasser al-Kidwa.
Mr al-Kidwa told the 15-judge panel: "This wall, if completed, will leave the Palestinian people with only half of the West Bank within isolated, non-contiguous, walled enclaves".
Rejecting the Israeli claim that the wall was built for the purposes of security, Mr al-Kidwa said:
"This wall is not about security. It is about entrenching the occupation and the de facto annexation of large areas of the Palestinian land".
The Palestinians oppose the route of the barrier, which dips deep into the West Bank at points.
Israel, which claims the court has no right to rule on the case, has refused to attend the hearings but sent a small team of legal experts to monitor the proceedings.
It has also mobilised pro-Israeli demonstrations outside the building and the transportation The mangled shell of an Israeli bus, blown up last month by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem, was displayed nearby.
Israel has completed about one-quarter of the barrier, a sprawling mass of trenches, walls, razor wire and trenches that could stretch up to 450 miles when finished.
Palestinians contend the barrier is illegal under international law and want the barrier dismantled or shifted to follow Israel's boundary with the West Bank before it was seized by Israel along with the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war.
The Hague tribunal is due to hold three days of hearings on the legality of building a barrier in occupied territory.
At stake is not only an international ruling but world opinion in a case that underlines the paralysis of Middle East peacemaking after more than three years of violence.
About a dozen countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, South Africa, Algeria and Cuba,
will present oral arguments in support of the Palestinian position.
The United States, Britain, the European Union and many Western countries have criticised the route of the barrier but joined Israel in shunning the hearings. They oppose the court's involvement, saying it may interfere with peacemaking.
A decision by the court could take several months.
Agencies