Peaceful protests and non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation have existed since the beginning of the Zionist colonisation movement, but have known a new phase since the construction of the wall and the Israeli settlements in the occupied territory. We could consider the village of Bil'in as a paradigmatic example of these struggles against the wall. The lands of Bil'in village started to be annexed in the 1980s by a nearby illegal Jewish settlement. In 2005, the Wall began to be built directly through the lands of Bil'in's Palestinian farmers. Since 2005, Bil'in has organised direct actions and weekly demonstrations, attracting the attention of the international community with its creativity and perseverance. Thanks to the popular mobilisation and legal struggle undertaken by Bil'in residents, in 2007, the Israeli High Court ruled to roll back the route of the Wall.
A number of direct actions have been organised, including the blockade of Apartheid Road 443 and other roads, a protest action at the Rami Levi supermarket in line with the call to boycott products that support the occupation, and the cutting of the apartheid separation fence at various locations. These actions are intended to reclaim the right to use settler-only roads, challenge the policies of occupation and segregation, and disrupt settler life. In 2021, B'Tselem has documented 45 cases of settler violence, ranging from vandalism of trees and other property to physical assaults resulting in Palestinian casualties or the expulsion of farmers from their land. The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) was born out of the popular movement against the Wall and the settlements that began in the early 2000s in different villages across the West Bank as a common platform that acts as a governing body for all local grassroots popular committees. 13.
But Palestinians are also persecuted by their own authorities. The Palestinian authorities in the occupied West Bank have launched a chilling campaign of repression, cracking down on peaceful protests with illegal force, targeting journalists, civil society activists and lawyers with arbitrary arrests and torturing detainees. 14.