When then-prime minister Ehud Barak returned from failed negotiations at Camp David, he expressed pride in one achievement: tearing the masks away from the faces of the Palestinians. That’s where the “no partner” spin came from. The facts from that point onward are familiar to everyone.

"Tearing away masks" is also at the foundation of the non-violent struggle that Palestinian activists have been conducting for close to a decade. What started as spontaneous and sporadic demonstrations — against the construction of the Israeli separation barrier on Palestinian village lands — has developed in recent years into a strategic choice to which wide portions of the Palestinian public and leadership are partner. A symbolic indication of such can be seen in the repeated attendance of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at the annual conference in the village of Bil’in, organized by members of the Popular Committees, which is behind the struggle.

The infrastructure of the non-violent struggle is composed of several layers, and a close look explains why Israel has trouble dealing with it. It is worth noting that the fight is not devoid of violence. On the contrary. From Gandhi’s time up until today, activists in non-violent struggles have sought to expose a violent reality which is at the base of any regime of occupation or repression. The regime seeks to play down this institutional violence through legislative manipulation and governmental practices. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and their successors chose to expose themselves to that violent reality inherent to occupation, in order to expose it to audiences that prefer to deny it or ignore its existence. There is thus no reason to be surprised by the violence demonstrators face. It can and should be understood that this violence is directed at those who seek to remove the mask from the “enlightened occupation,” the status quo, and business-as-usual. This mask is, of course, designed by the Israeli regime, which seeks to continue implementing its policies without disruption and without harm to its image.

This action shifts the arena from the space that Israel has sought in recent years to maintain. The non-violent protesters seek to shift attention from the respectable meeting rooms to reality on the ground. For them, the true test is not the constant chatter about “political negotiations and steps toward peace,” but the deepening occupation taking place simultaneously with that rhetoric.