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When Israel came to build its West Bank barrier among the olive groves of Budrus, villagers flocked to the fields to block its path.
Now the orange and yellow bulldozers have stopped work.
Israel says it will not return to build the barrier in the town's terraced orchards. And villagers are claiming victory for a relatively non-violent form of protest in a region better known for deadly clashes and suicide attacks.
"We don't have rocks or weapons. We defend our land just with our bodies," said Ahmed Hassan Awad, a Budrus Arabic teacher and activist.
Budrus is not the first West Bank town to try less violent forms of protest, activists say, but it is noteworthy because work on the barrier there has stopped since they began.
An Israeli security source said the barrier's route would be shifted west from Budrus to avoid problems, but did not say if protests had been a factor.
"People were very persistent and they managed to stop the wall...It shows Palestinians there is a third way, a non-violent way," said Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative, which backs non-violent protest.
"What matters is not what happens in Budrus, but all over," he said.
The past three years of violent conflict with Israel have cost Palestinians heavily in human lives, ruined a weak economy, brought about a collapse of order and pushed hopes of a viable, independent state in Gaza and the West Bank as far back as ever.
Israel says it is building the barrier the people of Budrus are protesting against to stop suicide bombers reaching cities where they have killed hundreds of Israelis.
But Palestinians fear its planned route, curving deep into the West Bank around Jewish settlements, will seal Israel's hold on land it seized in the 1967 Middle East war and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
Children chanting "God is greatest" led the way at a recent protest, walking and skipping along a pot-holed road to confront Israeli soldiers. Some as young as five or six, they waved Palestinian flags while adults kept order.
Only as the protesters were leaving, did a handful of teenagers pull out slings and aim at the soldiers, who responded by firing teargas into the retreating crowd.
"We are not afraid of them. They are afraid of us," said one woman, laughing aloud at the thought.
The villagers say it is their protests that have stopped the barrier and believe they can be a model to others.
"If many villages do as we did, it will be difficult for them to continue. We succeeded many times to push them away from our land," said Ayed Morar, head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Budrus.
Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, director of the Palestinian think tank Passia, said the message of non-violence was getting across, but did not have widespread support.
"The idea has always been there...It needs leadership. It needs mass support," he said. "There is not going to be a Palestinian Gandhi."

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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