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Israel on Sunday began tearing down a section of its contentious West Bank separation barrier near a village that has come to symbolize Palestinian opposition to the enclosure, the military said.

The rerouting marked a major victory for the residents of Bilin and the international groups that have backed their struggle. But they said it fell short of their demands to remove the structure from the village altogether and vowed to continue with their weekly protests.

The dismantling of the section near the village of Bilin comes four years after Israel's Supreme Court ordered it torn down, rejecting the military's argument that the route was necessary to secure the nearby Modiin Illit settlement.

Bilin lost half its land to the barrier, and years of weekly protests there have frequently evolved into clashes between activists and Israeli troops.

Israel began building the barrier in late 2002 to keep out Palestinian attackers amid a wave of suicide bombers targeting its cities. It says the structure is needed to keep militants from reaching Israeli population centers.

Tsur said the new route will put some 140 acres back in Palestinian hands. He said the total cost of the project is $9 million.

The protests have become a ritual of sorts each Friday, making the once out-of-the-way farming village a fashionable cause among activists. Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu are among the notables who have participated.

Tsur, the military commander, called the protests acts of violence, and said he doubted they would cease even after Israel rerouted the barrier's course because there was "big money involved" in backing the protesters.

Indeed, Bilin activists said the move would not influence their opposition.

"We are going to continue until we get all our rights. This barrier isn't for security. It's to steal land and build settlements," said Rami Burnat, a 30-year-old resident paralyzed in a separate demonstration 10 years ago.

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I wouldnt see this as any sort of "victory" for the Palestinians or "defeat" for the Israelis, I'd see this as just another example of the intransigence of the Netenyahu government - according to that article that part of the wall was ordered to be torn down 4 years ago by the Supreme Court, but it took this long to do it? This is more the Israeli govt dragging their heels on something that they knew they'll have to do eventually. If they'd pulled it down when they were ordered to do it they wouldn't have given this PR coup to the protestors, as now it looks like it was done because of the protests.

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Classic case of give em an inch, they want a mile....  Those people will never, ever be able to have a lasting peace between them.  It doesn't matter what the Israelis do.