During the First Palestinian Intifada (1987) before suicide bombings existed in Israel and when nearly a 1000 demonstrators armed with no more than rocks and slingshots were killed while protesting Israel's occupation, American-Palestinian activist Mubarek Awad set up the "Centre for Non-violent Civil Disobedience" in Jerusalem.  He was promptly deported.

A few years earlier (1982) Israel used the pretext of an attempted assassination of its ambassador in Europe by a breakaway PLO group to invade Lebanon and "crush PLO terror." (17,000 casualties, mostly civilians).

In reality, the PLO has been observing a US-brokered ceasefire for the 11 previous months and publicly discussing for the first time ever a two-state solution, thus rapidly gaining international acceptance with even the Vatican inviting Arafat for an audience. It was this that then-Israeli PM Menachem Begin found intolerable.

Israel has always feared Palestinian diplomacy far more than its violence.