JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says it has begun tearing down a section of Israel’s contentious West Bank separation barrier near a village that has come to symbolize Palestinian opposition to the enclosure.
The dismantling of the section near the village of Bilin began Sunday, four years after the Supreme Court ordered it torn down. The court said the barrier’s route did not make the nearby Modiin Illit settlement secure.
Bilin lost half its land to the barrier. Years of weekly protests there frequently have evolved into clashes between villagers and Israeli troops.
Israel began building the barrier in late 2002 to keep out Palestinian attackers. But it juts into the West Bank, and critics say the route is designed to grab land that Palestinians want for a state.
