The question itself is problematic, being based on many erroneous
assumptions, such as the notion that there is symmetry between the two
sides and that Peace Now has been a politically effective movement.
Most important, though, is the false supposition that Palestinians have
indeed failed to create a pro-peace popular movement.

In September 1967 – three months after the decisive war in which the
West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem were occupied – Palestinian
leaders decided to launch a campaign against the introduction of new
Israeli textbooks in Palestinian schools. They did not initiate
terrorist attacks, as the prevailing narratives about Palestinian
opposition would have one believe, but rather the Palestinian
dissidents adopted Mahatma Gandhi-style methods and declared a general
school strike: teachers did not show up for work, children took to the
streets to protest against the occupation and many shopkeepers closed
shop.

Israel’s response to that first strike was immediate and severe: it
issued military orders categorising all forms of resistance as
insurgency – including protests and political meetings, raising flags
or other national symbols, publishing or distributing articles or
pictures with political connotations, and even singing or listening to
nationalist songs.

Moreover, it quickly deployed security forces to suppress
opposition, launching a punitive campaign in Nablus, where the strike’s
leaders resided. As Major General Shlomo Gazit, the co-ordinator of activities in the occupied territories at the time, points out in his book The Carrot and the Stick,
the message Israel wanted to convey was clear: any act of resistance
would result in a disproportionate response, which would make the
population suffer to such a degree that resistance would appear
pointless.

After a few weeks of nightly curfews, cutting off telephone lines,
detaining leaders, and increasing the level of harassment, Israel
managed to break the strike.

While much water has passed under the bridge since that first
attempt to resist using “civil disobedience” tactics, over the past
five decades Palestinians have continuously deployed nonviolent forms
of opposition to challenge the occupation. Israel, on the other hand,
has, used violent measures to undermine all such efforts.

It is often forgotten that even the second intifada, which turned
out to be extremely violent, began as a popular nonviolent uprising.
Haaretz journalist Akiva Eldar revealed several years later that the
top Israeli security echelons had decided to “fan the flames”
during the uprising’s first weeks. He cites Amos Malka, the military
general in charge of intelligence at the time, saying that during the
second intifada’s first month, when it was still mostly characterised
by nonviolent popular protests, the military fired 1.3m bullets in the
West Bank and Gaza. The idea was to intensify the levels of violence,
thinking that this would lead to a swift and decisive military victory
and the successful suppression of the rebellion. And indeed the
uprising and its suppression turned out to be extremely violent.

But over the past five years, Palestinians from scores of villages and towns such as Bil’in and Jayyous
have developed new forms of pro-peace resistance that have attracted
the attention of the international community. Even Palestinian
Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad recently called on his
constituents to adopt similar strategies. Israel, in turn, decided to
find a way to end the protests once and for all and has begun a
well-orchestrated campaign that targets the local leaders of such
resistance.

One such leader is Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher and
the co-ordinator of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall, is one
of many Palestinians who was on the military’s wanted list. At 2am on
10 December (international Human Rights Day),
nine military vehicles surrounded his home. Israeli soldiers broke the
door down, and after allowing him to say goodbye to his wife Majida and
three young children, blindfolded him and took him into custody.
He is being charged with throwing stones, the possession of arms
(namely gas canisters in the Bil’in museum) and inciting fellow
Palestinians, which, translated, means organising demonstrations
against the occupation.

The day before Abu Ramah was arrested, the Israeli military carried
out a co-ordinated operation in the Nablus region, raiding houses of
targeted grassroots activists who have been fighting against human
rights abuses. Wa’el al-Faqeeh Abu as-Sabe,
45, is one of the nine people arrested. He was taken from his home at
1am and, like Abu Ramah, is being charged with incitement. Mayasar
Itiany, who is known for her work with the Nablus Women’s Union and is
a campaigner for prisoners’ rights was also taken into custody as was
Mussa Salama, who is active in the Labour Committee of Medical Relief
for Workers. Even Jamal Juma, the director of an NGO called Stop the Wall, is now behind bars.

Targeted night arrests of community leaders have become common
practice across the West Bank, most notably in the village of Bil’in
where, since June, 31 residents have been arrested for their
involvement in the demonstrations against the wall. Among these is Adeeb Abu Rahmah,
a prominent activist who has been held in detention for almost five
months and is under threat of being imprisoned for up to 14 months.

Clearly, the strategy is to arrest all of the leaders and charge
them with incitement, thus setting an extremely high “price tag” for
organising protests against the subjugation of the Palestinian people.
The objective is to put an end to the pro-peace popular resistance in
the villages and to crush, once and for all, the Palestinian peace
movement.

Thus, my answer to those who ask about a Palestinian “Peace Now” is
that a peaceful grassroots movement has always existed. At Abdallah Abu
Rahmah’s trial next Tuesday one will be able to witness some of the
legal methods that have consistently been deployed to destroy it.