On July 9th 2004 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the "construction by Israel of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" was "contrary to international law." Palestinians hailed the decision, but the US and Israeli governments quickly denounced the court's ruling.
On July 21, "the General Assembly of the UN overwhelmingly agreed with the ICJ opinion, by a vote of 150-6 with ten abstentions." Despite the clear legal argument against construction of a wall that will divide Palestinian communities and create great hardship for many, Israel's immediate response was to scold the EU for its vote and even center-left US newspapers weighed in with the opinion that 150 countries all had some sort of anti-Israel bias.
While public opinion in Israel has not changed much as a result of the ICJ's ruling, the Israeli Surpreme Court had already looked into the legality of the wall and concluded on June 30th that the route of the wall had to change since it "injures the local inhabitants in a severe and acute way while violating their rights under humanitarian and international law."

On August 19th, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to respond to the ICJ ruling amid fear of sanctions.

Text Of The Ruling | Implications of Wall and ICJ's Ruling | More On The Apartheid Wall