Israel and Egypt are preparing to present oral arguments in the final phase of the binding arbitration process to decide ownership of 14 disputed sites along the Israel-Sinai border, including the resort area of Taba.
The pleas of both sides will be heard by a five-member international arbitration board. The presentation is scheduled for March 14-28, with a break for the Passover-Easter holidays, and resumption for one week on April 12.
After that, the panel will begin deliberations and write its report, which may take up to several months.
At the first phase of the arbitration hearings, which ended last December, Israel and Egypt each submitted several thousand pages of documents, maps and charts and written arguments supporting their respective claims.
Throughout the process, a compromise has been sought within the framework of the arbitration agreement and through United States intervention. At one point, it was learned, the United States proposed to award Egypt sovereignty over the half-square-mile Taba region, allowing Israel special access rights to its property there, mainly a luxury resort hotel and a beach-side vacation village. Israel rejected the proposal.
The Taba arbitrators visited the region in January. Nevertheless, Israel will present videotape films and a large three-dimensional scale model of Taba during the oral arguments phase. The chief counsel for Israel will be Eli Lauterbacht, a prominent British international lawyer.
The arbitration panel comprises legal experts headed by Judge Gunnar Lagergen of Sweden. Its others members are Pierre Bellet of France, Dietrich Schindler of Switzerland, Ruth Lapidot of Israel and Hamdi Sultan of Egypt.
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