In January this year, millions around the world watched in horror and revulsion as Israel's war on Gaza revealed the inhuman barbarity of the Zionist state. While the media focus on the suffering of the Palestinians was a refreshing change from the usual sycophancy towards Israel, Palestinian resistance continues to be portrayed as a terrorist campaign waged by a minority of "gunmen" from Hamas. In fact the resistance is a mass movement involving many thousands of unsung grass roots activists who resist Israeli oppression on a daily basis. These are some of their stories.

The West Bank

Bil'in village (12 kilometres west of Ramallah) is one of many communities where the "separation barrier", or apartheid wall, is being built to deprive a Palestinian farming community of its lands and livelihood.

Every single Friday since February 2005, the people of Bil'in village have marched in protest against the construction of the wall. Every week the protest features a different theme, and uses a different method of non-violently attempting to obstruct work on the wall.

For these protests the people of Bil'in have faced arrests, been shot at with live ammunition, been put under curfew, had their demonstrations blasted with sound weapons, and have been tear-gassed in their fields, their streets, and their homes.

At the weekly rally on 17 April 2009 Bassem Abu Rahmah was urging the Israeli army to hold their fire, as a woman protester had just been injured, and there were children present. He was shot dead by an Israeli soldier, hit in the chest with a high-velocity tear gas canister.

On the following Friday, 24 April, the rally was joined by hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli, and international supporters. Protesters succeeded in building a memorial for Bassem Abu Rahmah near the wall, despite a constant barrage of tear gas and plastic-coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli army.

The protests continue every Friday.

In 2004 the people of Ni'lin village, just north of Bil'in, protested against the original route of the wall. They succeeded in having it moved so that it would take up less land. However, in May 2008 the bulldozers returned to the other side of the village, where the route extends deep into the West Bank, dividing them from their land.

The villagers started fierce protests. "The goal was to stop the construction of the wall," said Hindi, an activist in the village. So far, the protests have delayed work by months.

However, the villagers have paid a terrible price. In July 2008 an Israeli soldier shot dead a ten-year-old boy, Ahmed Moussa, near the wall. Since then three more young men have been shot dead by the Israeli army.

At the weekly demonstration on 13 March 2009 Tristan Anderson, of Oakland California, was critically injured when shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas canister.

According to a statement published on the village's Facebook page:

"These murders have left the village in shock and sadness, but we will not let it break us. We know we are standing up for a right cause, which is our land and our future. We are resisting one of many Israeli measures which are considered illegal under international law. Israel may have access to the use of violence, but we have the determination to stand up against their violations of basic human rights. This is what unifies the village and our peaceful struggle will not end until our rights are being met."

Palestinian prisoners

Since 1967, over 750,000 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli authorities - approximately one in five of the total Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza. Today there are approximately 9,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. This includes 38 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. There are over 540 "administrative detainees", being held without charge or trial for indefinite periods of time.

Palestinian prisoners regularly face torture, abuse, and poor conditions. On 9 April 2009, for instance, the Israeli Prison Service announced that no books whatsoever will be allowed to Palestinian prisoners.

April 17 is Palestinian Prisoners' day. This week was marked by demonstrations throughout Palestine.

"First you took the land, now you take the labour"

1.2 million Palestinians live inside the 1948 borders of Israel, nearly 20 per cent of Israel's population. They face systematic discrimination, including as workers. Out of 13,000 workers employed by the Israel Electricity Corporation, for instance, only six are Palestinian.

At the end of March 2009, around 150 Arab workers employed as guards at railway level crossings were told by Israel Railways that they would be sacked. Almost all their jobs would go to young Israeli army veterans. Palestinians are exempt from military service in Israel, and only a tiny number serve in the army that occupies their country.

The railway workers have launched an international appeal for support against this racist mass sacking.

East Jerusalem

If you're Palestinian in Jerusalem, it is almost impossible to get a permit to build or extend your house. So Palestinian families are forced to build without a permit. This is then used as an excuse to demolish Palestinian houses throughout East Jerusalem.

In February the Israeli authorities announced they were about to demolish the homes of 1400 people in the Palestinian suburb of Silwan. The demolitions are to make way for an archaeological theme park.

The announcement sparked a general strike on February 28, observed throughout the West Bank. A protest tent has been erected and is a centre for community organising against the demolitions.

In November 2008 the al-Khurd family was evicted from their house in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian suburb of East Jerusalem. The family have set up a protest tent on open land in Sheikh Jarrah.

The tent has been demolished five times by the Israeli authorities as an "illegal structure". It has been put back up five times by the al-Khurds and their supporters, visited by activists and sympathetic politicians from around the world, and is used as a centre for community organising.

Mamilla is an ancient Muslim cemetery just to the west of the Old City in Jerusalem. Since 1948, 90 per cent of the cemetery grounds have been built over, mainly for car parks and Israeli government offices.

Now there is a new project: two large new buildings, a "Museum of Tolerance" and a "Centre for Human Dignity" will sit atop these Muslim graves. Protests resumed in November last year after an Israeli Supreme Court ruling.

Um Al-Fahem

On Tuesday March 24, around a hundred members of the Jewish National Front attempted to march through Um Al-Fahem, a Palestinian city of 50,000 inside Israel.

The Jewish National Front is a fascist organisation, which advocates the expulsion or murder of all Palestinians living in Israel. It is largely based in Hebron, where 600 Israeli settlers use Israeli army protection to terrorise the 120,000 Palestinian residents at will.

Defying 2,500 Israeli riot police, thousands of townspeople turned out to prevent the fascists from marching through their streets. The police fired sound grenades and tear gas at protesters, at residents, and into homes. Thirteen protesters were arrested and 11 wounded in the fights that followed.

The Um Al-Fahem municipality released a unanimous statement that the city's inhabitants and the entire Arab public had "with the support of the Jewish forces of peace and democracy, stood together to stop this provocation and managed to curb racism and fascism."

One protester told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz: "From my point of view this is Palestine and will stay Palestine. The Right can protest all it wants, but it won't change that fact."