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JERUSALEM : Israel has agreed to alter the planned route of its separation barrier outside a major West Bank Jewish settlement to allow Palestinians more access to their land, the justice ministry said on Thursday.
The state prosecutor's office told the High Court that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak have decided to "significantly" alter the course of the security fence near Maale Adumim, a statement said.
The controversial barrier would be moved 400 hectares (around 1,000 acres) closer to Maale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories.
The decision came in response to complaints filed to Israel's High Court by Palestinian villagers.
Israel says the barrier is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating Israel and West Bank settlements, but the Palestinians say it is a land grab aimed at undermining the viability of their future state.
The Israeli B'Tselem human rights group says that the Israeli authorities have yet to comply with three of five alterations to the barrier's route, which were ordered by the High Court in recent years.
Palestinians have filed several complaints before the High Court against the barrier, which consists of more than 300 kilometres (185 miles) of walls, fences and barbed wire, with about 400 kilometres (250 miles) more being built or planned.
UN figures show that once completed, 87 percent of the barrier will be built on West Bank territory which Israel occupied in 1967.
Together with Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the barrier is one of the major hurdles in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
- AFP /ls
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