2015-08-27 11:06:00

Cremisan Valley: legalities and livelihoods


(Vatican Radio) Concern and dismay continues to be voiced over the construction of a separation barrier in the Cremisan Valley which is underway and has already uprooted trees in an ancient olive grove.

The EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and a number of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences, including the Bishops of Germany, the US, South Africa and England and Wales have stressed that the wall will severely restrict access of 58 Palestinian families to their agricultural land and profoundly affect their livelihoods.

Over the past ten years there has been a legal battle to prevent the building of the barrier. Last April a previous Supreme Court ruling blocked the Israeli government’s plan to extend the separation wall through the Cremisan Valley.

A petition has been submitted by the families of the Valley to the Supreme Court of Israel to halt the work that has already been started.

Dr Harry Hagopian is an international lawyer and middle east & inter-faith advisor to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales.

Listen to this interview 

Speaking to Vatican Radio he said the decision on this petition by the families could go both ways. “The High Court might say no, we’ve said our final word on it or the High Court might say, OK, we have reconsidered the request of those families and their representatives and we might actually issue another order.”

But in his opinion, Dr Hagopian said he didn’t believe the court will have the wall removed or not constructed because he added, “politics intrudes into the legality of the situation”…

Asked about how important the Church’s voice is, especially with regard to the Cremisan Valley situation, he believed that all the statements that were released from the various Bishops’ Conferences had a “persuasive authority, just like the International Courts of Justice did years ago, in order to mobilize public opinion to the fact there is something radically wrong.”








All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©.