A Palestinian took the invaders’ weapon, turning it against them to defend his homeland. Immediately hordes of settlers attacked Palestinian towns throughout the occupied West Bank. This is a common pattern in Palestine and Lebanon, especially after the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood. And it is a calculated one. The occupation imposes as much domination as it can without provoking a massive uprising: apartheid within the occupied territories, a blockade in Gaza, displacement and Judaization in the West Bank, and near-daily killings in Lebanon and Syria. And this is what they want us to consider “routine violence.”

As long as the people of the land do not resist, the occupation keeps up this basic violence, gradually escalating it, until we mentally come to terms with its presence. Then, whenever the people of the land resist, the occupation inflicts “additional violence” which it presents as a reaction to the act of resistance.

As long as the people of the land do not resist, the occupation keeps up this basic violence, gradually escalating it, until we mentally come to terms with its presence. Then, whenever the people of the land resist, the occupation inflicts “additional violence” which it presents as a reaction to the act of resistance.

The message is clear: “Do not resist, or else.” This additional violence is designed to make the people of the land wary of resistance and to make them cry out against their oppression: “Enough violence!”—meaning: “The routine violence is enough; why bring additional violence upon ourselves?”

Thus, the occupation seeks to make acts of resistance costly, just as the resistance seeks to make the occupation costly. It shifts the question from how to confront the occupation to whether it is even worth confronting it. It instills a spirit of defeatism and creates a rift within the colonized society. Perhaps these two tools—defeatism and societal fragmentation—are the most dangerous weapons in the enemy’s arsenal. We have seen the success of this endeavor in the........

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