US embassy cable - 04THEHAGUE251

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 000251 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR L - TAFT/SCHWARTZ, L/UNA - 
MATHIAS/LAMOTTE/COGAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, KPAL, ICJ 
SUBJECT: ICJ: US STATEMENT IN FENCE PROCEEDING SUBMITTED TO 
COURT 
 
1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified. 
 
2. (U) On January 30, Embassy Legal Officers delivered to the 
International Court of Justice (ICJ) the U.S. written 
statement in the proceedings concerning the UN General 
Assembly's request for an advisory opinion as to the "legal 
consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied 
Palestinian territory."  Israeli Embassy officers were also 
delivering Israel's statement at the same time, and an ICJ 
legal officer said that more than a dozen such statements had 
already been delivered by this morning.  It was the latter's 
expectation that approximately thirty written statements 
would be submitted by day's end.  The Court Registry will be 
working over the weekend to copy all statements and make them 
available to United Nations Member States on Monday.  Upon 
receipt, Embassy will transmit the documents to L. 
 
3. (SBU) Emboffs have learned that one of the issues the 
Court will be considering in coming weeks is the amount of 
time to be devoted to the oral proceedings, scheduled to 
begin on February 23.  Registry legal officer explained that 
the hearings could occur over two full weeks, though the 
amount of time depends upon the number of participating 
parties.  It remains unresolved how much time each 
participant would be allotted during the hearings.  The Court 
will also have to determine the order of the hearing and 
whether to include a second (i.e. rebuttal) round.  These 
decisions will be taken after the February 13 deadline for 
parties to indicate whether they intend to participate in the 
oral proceedings.  The registry officer indicated that, 
assuming a desire to participate in oral proceedings, the UN 
might be given the floor first, followed by Palestinian and 
Israeli advocates (who would be given "more" time than other 
participants), followed by other states (likely in 
alphabetical order), and lastly the two organizations (i.e. 
the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Countries) that 
the Court has already authorized to participate. 
RUSSEL