JERUSALEM – Israel’s defense minister has ordered a review of the route of Israel’s separation barrier to better reflect Palestinian Arab concerns, his office said yesterday, a decision that could have significant implications for Israel’s future borders.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, leader of the dovish Labor Party, wants the barrier with the West Bank to meet security needs, and not serve as a tool to expand settlements and cement Israel’s hold on lands the Palestinian Arabs claim for a future state, the Ha’aretz newspaper reported.

Mr. Peretz’s office confirmed he was reviewing the route with Palestinian Arabs in mind, but would not provide further details.

If security considerations are the only basis for the route, then the barrier’s course will be changed in several areas, especially around Jerusalem, a retired colonel who has issued expert opinions on the barrier route to the Supreme Court, Shaul Arieli, said.

Israel began building the 470-mile barrier in 2001 in an effort to bring down the number of Palestinian Arab attackers coming in from the West Bank.

But because the current route would put about 10% of the West Bank on the “Israeli” side of the barrier, Palestinian Arabs and other critics regard the enclosure as a thinly veiled land grab.

The barrier also has created great hardships for many Palestinian Arabs, by cutting them off from relatives, jobs, schools, hospitals, and farmlands.

The decision to review the route was a further sign of Mr. Peretz’s intent to overhaul Israeli defense policy with regard to the Palestinian Arabs. Since taking office in April, he has increased the number of permits for Palestinian Arabs to work in Israel, opened key cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip, and promised to remove illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank.

If security is all that determines the barrier’s route, then changes are likely around Jerusalem and the nearby settlement of Maaleh Adumim, where the state has taken large swaths of land for political reasons, Mr. Arieli told Army Radio.

“There are more than a few places where there is indeed a deviation whose entire goal is to appropriate lands where there are future plans … to expand the settlements,” Mr. Arieli said.

The barrier’s entire route will be reviewed, including sections that have already been built, Ha’aretz said.

Mr. Peretz ordered the review after the Supreme Court ordered the Defense Ministry last week to reroute three miles of the barrier near the Palestinian Arab town of Qalqiliya, saying it was being used to allow an expansion of the Jewish settlement of Tzufin, and not for security reasons.

The defense minister wants to avoid similar rulings in the future, Ha’aretz said. Human rights and Palestinian Arab groups allege that in at least 10 places, the barrier’s sole intent is to allow settlement expansion.

Israel has had to modify the barrier’s route several times before following Supreme Court rulings. The original route, before the changes, included at least 150,000 acres of West Bank land that was taken for political reasons, Mr. Arieli said. He had no updated figures.

The Israeli government has insisted repeatedly that the barrier is being built for security reasons alone. Prime Minister Olmert has said Israel’s final borders would approximate the barrier’s route.

If Israel includes within its final borders only those settlements that abut the line separating Israel and the West Bank, then 200,000 of the 250,000 Jewish settlers will be included on the “Israeli” side of the fence, Mr. Arieli said.