“God help us if (the Palestinians) start staging a nonviolent march our way,” the officer told The Media Line, on condition he not be identified.

If there is anything that generates fear in the Israeli Army beyond a surprise attack, it is the prospect of facing unarmed demonstrators. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was made to fight wars, and is uncomfortable confronting unarmed civilians.

But that’s just what Palestinians are planning for this Sunday. Grassroots activists working through the social media are calling people to come out and stage a mass assault on Israel’s borders to mark Naksa Day, which commemorates what they call the “setback” of the 1967 Six-Day War and Israel’s seizure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Nonviolent demonstrations alone don’t present a security threat to Israel, nor are they alone likely to bring about a Palestinian state. But they could strike another blow to Israel’s image in the international community, where incidents like the lethal commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara a year ago have earned the Jewish state a reputation as being too trigger happy.

The Naksa campaign comes two weeks after at least 13 people were killed and hundreds wounded when demonstrators attempted to breach the fence along the Israeli Golan Heights border with Lebanon and Syria to mark Nakba, or “catastrophe,” the day that commemorates the creation of Israel in 1948.

Pro-Palestinian bloggers and Facebook pages are urging Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as well as those living in neighboring Arab countries to mobilize in a march of unity to “liberate Palestine” and for the descendants of refugees to return to their homes. Many activists are promising this is the staging ground of a new Intifada that will be wholly nonviolent.

The IDF insists that it had learned the lessons from the Nakba incident, when thousands of Palestinians living in Syria crossed a minefield, ripped down the border fence and spilled into the Golan Heights. It was the first time unarmed marchers had ever been able to achieve this against Israeli troops.

“Israel has no intention of sitting quietly this time, and this means we will try to show maximum restraint until the moment we feel our lives are threatened,” legislator Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former Defense Minister, told Israel radio. “The army is deployed as it should be. To say I see a plug for every leak, no. But I rely on the army.”

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said the army “knows it may find itself facing large-scale popular protests” and has learned lessons from this year’s Nakba Day. In contrast to the reserve officer’s views, he says the army has trained and armed itself properly.