Israeli workers building a West Bank separation barrier cut down dozens of olive trees with chainyesterday, sparking clashes between stone-throwing villagers and Israeli troops who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Twenty Palestinians were hurt by rubber bullets, local hospital officials said. Stones injured two Israeli border policemen, and three Palestinians were arrested, police said. The incident began in the West Bank village of Bidou northwest of Jerusalem. Some of Bidou's olive groves are in the path of a separation barrier Israel is building. Dozens of Israeli construction workers with chain saws, accompanied by five bulldozers, entered Bidou and began cutting down olive trees. Hundreds of villagers, including women and children, tried to obstruct the path of the bulldozers. The army said villagers also threw stones at soldiers guarding the work crew. Troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, meanwhile, brushed off recent threats to his life by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as his Palestinian Authority warned Washington not to interfere in its internal affairs. "I am not afraid of Sharon's threats," the 74-year-old Arafat told the top-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. "Do you know me as a person who is afraid? I am afraid only of Allah. "This is not the first time that Sharon has threatened my life. "He forgets that he also threatened me in Beirut," added Arafat in reference to Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, where his Palestine Liberation Organisation was then based. Sharon is to travel to Washington next week where he will meet with US President George W Bush next Wednesday to seek his crucial support for his disengagement plan. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath is also to pay a visit to the United States where he will meet senior officials on April 21, sources in his office said. He is likely to press the point that the Gaza pull-out should be co-ordinated with Palestinians. In other developments, in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian teenager died of wounds he had sustained the previous day when a makeshift explosive device he was attempting to throw at Israeli troops prematurely blew up in his hands, medics said. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinian youths burn pictures of President Bush, Wednesday April 7, 2004. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)