The Palestinians take their challenge to Israel?s West Bank barrier before the World Court yesterday after an Israeli officials proved the need for building the vast network of walls and fences.

The Hague-based UN tribunal will hold three days of hearings on the legality of the barrier, which Israel calls a bulwark against militant attacks and Palestinians condemn as a grab for land they want for a state.

But a propaganda battle already being waged outside the courtroom threatens to drown out the legal proceedings within. ?This is a fight for hearts and minds that goes beyond dry legal arguments,? a member of the Palestinian delegation said.

Final preparations at the baroque Peace Palace, where a panel of 15 international jurists will hear the case, were overshadowed by a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed eight people on a crowded Jerusalem bus on Sunday.

Israeli officials cited it as a grim example of why they must keep up construction of a barrier they say has already thwarted dozens of such attacks but which has drawn international criticism for slicing into Palestinian territory. Palestinians voiced concern that the bombing could undermine their case at The Hague.

Both sides are planning street demonstrations. Fearing clashes, Dutch police have slotted them in at separate times. In the West Bank, Palestinians were mounting mass protests yesterday in an official Day of Rage against the barrier. About 180 km of the planned 730 km construction has so far been built.

At stake is not only an international ruling on the barrier but world opinion in a case that underlines the paralysis of Middle East peacemaking after more than three years of violence.

The Israeli government has refused to attend the hearings, calling the case political and beyond the court?s jurisdiction.

But Israel won?t remain on the sidelines. A rescue service sent the skeleton of a Jerusalem bus, in which a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people last month, for display outside the court as grim evidence of what Israelis have endured.

The Foreign Ministry dispatched a team to deal with the press, and hundreds of Israeli demonstrators, including relatives of victims of suicide bombings, were flown in.

Israeli Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz responded to Sunday?s bombing in Jerusalem with a vow that ?we will continue to build the fence in accordance with the government?s decision?.

In overnight operations, Israeli forces demolished the bomber?s family home near Bethlehem ? a standard reprisal ? and arrested 11 suspected militants in the area, the army said.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat?s office condemned the bombing and called the timing harmful for the campaign against the barrier. Palestinian lawyers will tell the judges the barrier is illegal under international law for absorbing chunks of occupied land, including loops around Jewish settlements, and for hardship caused to the Palestinian population.

They will argue the barrier should be dismantled or shifted to follow Israel?s boundary with the West Bank before it was seized along with the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war.

To dramatise their case, Palestinian demonstrators will build a mock barrier and demolish it outside the court.

?This is a fight for hearts and minds that goes beyond dry legal arguments.?

Matt Spetalnick