JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Wednesday any notion he would order Israel's barrier in the West Bank to be torn down in response to the absence of Palestinian attacks from the occupied territory."The separation fence will remain in place and will not be dismantled," Netanyahu said in a speech in parliament. "I hear they are saying today that because it's quiet, it's possible to take down the fence. My friends, the opposite is true," he said. "It's quiet because a fence exists."
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Israeli leaders have portrayed the barrier as a temporary obstacle that could be moved once a peace agreement with the Palestinians was signed and attacks on Israel ceased.
In his speech, Netanyahu said Israel welcomed "a certain improvement in the functioning of Palestinian security forces" in the West Bank. But he added: "The fence is important."
There has been a dramatic drop in the number of attacks in Israel over the past several years, a decrease security experts attribute to the barrier, Israeli and Palestinian Authority security steps and a change of tactics by some militant groups.
No suicide bombers have struck this year. In 2008, one person was killed in Israel by a bomber whom authorities said infiltrated from the West Bank through an area where the barrier had not been completed.