The High Court of Justice heard two petitions on Wednesday which asked for court intervention to prevent the West Bank fence from being built in a way that could destroy the shared Palestinian-Israeli Battir cultural landscape site and an ancient Bar Kochba stronghold.
The emergency petitions were filed recently by Friends of the Earth's Middle East (FOEME) division and the village council of Battir.In an unprecedented development, the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority took FOEME's side against the IDF and the rest of the government.
That "defection" framed the debate and made it much more difficult for the state to make arguments for the wall beyond security concerns.
