Head-to-head: Is the barrier justified?

The International Court of Justice is meeting in The Hague to rule on the legality of a barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.

Palestinians argue that the barrier is built on occupied land and is illegal. It divides their communities and cuts them off from land, jobs, schools and social services.

Israel says the barrier is necessary to protect its people from attacks and that it has done what it can to minimise its effects on Palestinian daily life.

Here, two commentators on either side of the divide give their views on whether the barrier is justified:

No Jamal Juma is the co-ordinator of Stop The Wall, a group campaigning for the demolition of the barrier: The Apartheid wall, which began being built in the occupied West Bank in June 2002, is nearly one-third complete. It snakes its way deep inside the West Bank, devouring fertile land into de facto Israeli-controlled areas, encircling residential areas, ghettoising and imprisoning the Palestinian population. That the wall is a violation of international law is not new. Countless reports have come out from Palestinian and international sources discussing the extent to which the wall is illegal, and the way in which such a crime manifests itself in the daily violation of individual and collective rights. The UN has stated clearly, in the General Assembly and in various reports of its related agencies, that the wall is illegal and should be stopped and dismantled. But no report is needed to highlight the atrocity that is taking place in the occupied territory. The 90,000 people who are already directly affected by the wall's 140km "first phase" are well aware that their entire lives have been shattered, that their incomes, dignity, children's future and heritage were uprooted in a matter of weeks or months as bulldozers levelled their lands in order to confiscate and isolate them. One thing is clear to us here in Palestine: As the bulldozers devastate our lands and lives on a daily basis for the building of the wall, Israel has no intention of stopping.

Yes Yosef Lapid, Israel's Justice Minister, has criticised the intended route of the fence but says the project is necessary: We realise that in some places this fence has caused difficulties to the daily lives of Palestinians and we do not want to hurt anybody. We have to take into account the humanitarian aspects of this. The whole fence is about one thing only - it is about terror and they are continuing the terror. The barrier is there only because of the suicide bombings. There is no other reason for this but the suicide bombings. Every people must have the right to defend itself from murders. We have lost more than 900 innocent civilians through terrorism. Any country would defend itself in our place. And some are trying to deny us this right - there is absolutely no justifiable reason for this. We are saying this is not a border. This is removable. And it is not a wall. They are calling it a wall. Six percent of the whole fence is a wall. Ninety-four percent is a fence. The court has been asked by the UN General Assembly to give its advice, so there will be no binding decision of any sort. But we are saying that the court is now ruling on a purely judicial matter from a political point of view. I do not think it has the competence. It is agreed by the British government, by all European governments and by the Americans, Australians, the Canadian government, that the court has no jurisdiction over this matter. We will continue constructing the barrier for as long as they are continuing their terror actions.