Peaceful Activism

Every Friday, since 2005, Palestinians from the village of B'ilin together with international and Israeli activists tirelessly have held non-violent demonstrations against the confiscation of almost half of the village lands for the Wall and settlement expansion.
These demonstrations usually turn out violent when Israeli soldiers confront the protesters. Night raids and arrests follow. Activisits built a symbolic grave on the spot where Bassem Abu Rahmah, 30, was shot and killed by an Israeli bullet in B'ilin on April 19, this year.
Luisa Morgantini, an activist and a leading member of the European Parliament has taken part in many of B'ilin's peaceful protests. She wrote in the Italian paper Liberazione on July 19 that the Israeli reaction to peaceful demonstrations was not primarily aimed at physically neutralizing the activists, "but also to spread terror amongst the inhabitants of the village of Bil’in, 1,800 residents, in order to stop all kind of activity of non violent resistance, that become an example also for other realities of the occupied West Bank such as Nil'in and Ma'asara, whose land continue to be confiscated by the wall."
Bi'ilin, like N'ilin before it, has become a symbol of peaceful resistance. Palestinians have emerged exhausted from a seven-year-old Intifada where arms were used in an unequal balance of power with the Israeli army. Some, like the people of several villages, have reverted to peaceful demonstrations to confront what they see as injustice and safeguard what is left of their land.
Some of my Israeli friends called me last week to express joy at seeing Nablus --which only a few months ago was a hotbed for violence and a stronghold for armed militants -- regain normalcy and people were celebrating the improvement of their economy following the easing of travel restrictions through the two checkpoints that impede travel.
If the aim is to stop all form of non-violent resistance, one should not forget that Hamas was created as a military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood before the first Intifada of 1987 when Fatah and other PLO factions were engaged in armed resistance while the Islamists were passive, working in charities and preaching. Young Muslim activists then pressured the Muslim Brotherhood to join the fight.
How long will the Palestinian non-violence proponents adhere to their peaceful activism if the Wall keeps snaking deeply into their lands and if settlements and checkpoints carve up the West Bank into separate enclaves?
Will the two sides, Israelis and Palestinians continue to be locked in battles in which neither side emerges the winner?