ABSTRACT
The very subject of the wall goes to the heart of whether or not a Palestinian state can be established on viable territory. The 700 kilometre wall cuts through the Israeli-occupied West Bank, dividing communities and people from their land and slicing Palestine into even smaller units of land surrounded by Israeli control. The ‘Palestine’ that appeared at the International Court of Justice is the nomenclature accorded to the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s observer delegation at the United Nations. Since 1974, the UNGA has recognised the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as ‘the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people’ (UNGA resolution 3210 [XXIX]) and accorded the organisation observer status (UNGA resolution 3237 [XXIX]) (see SybesmaKnol, 2002). This process has granted the PLO a degree of international legal personality and has allowed it to participate in the UN bodies and UN-sponsored international conferences. This form of legal personality is, however, not connected to the characteristics of state, and does not necessarily imply that any temporal jurisdiction exists (for a discussion of international legal personality, see Higgins, 1994).
