[22] In 2005, the local council leader of Bil'in, Ahmed Issa Abdullah Yassin, hired Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard to represent the village in a petition to the High Court of Justice.

Chief Justice Dorit Beinish wrote in her ruling: "We were not convinced that it is necessary for security-military reasons to retain the current route that passes on Bilin's lands."

The Israeli Defense Ministry said it would respect the ruling[23][24] and in 2011 began dismantling a section of the barrier in order to relocate it along an alternative route.

[25] In February 2007, the Supreme Planning Council (SPC) for the West Bank "legalized" what Haaretz described at the time as "the largest-ever illegal construction project in the West Bank", 42 buildings with a total of approximately 1,500 apartments in the Matityahu East neighborhood of the ultra-Orthodox Israel settlement Modi'in Illit by Canadian registered companies Green Park and Green Mount, with two other companies, Ein Ami and Hefziba.

[26] In response, Michael Sfard filed a petition on behalf of Israeli NGO Peace Now and Bil'in residents at the High Court of Justice (HCJ) requesting a halt to the construction.

[26] Sfard alleged that the planning authorities, who had refused to hear the claims of Bil'in residents intended to prove land ownership, were aware of the illegality of the construction but did not stop it and that the body administering the relocation of the barrier planned a route in order to obtain hundreds of dunams of Bil'in's agricultural lands for Modi'in Illit's expansion.

[26] On September 5, 2007, the day after the HCJ ordered the state to alter the route of a 1.7-kilometer section of the West Bank barrier, the court rejected the petition filed a year and a half earlier concerning Mattityahu East construction, and ruled that the existing buildings could remain, but ordered settlers, the state, and construction companies to pay the petitioners' NIS 160,000 court fees.

[27][28] Describing the ruling, Haaretz reported that "the court based its decision on the fact that the petitions should have been filed several years earlier...the state will not remove the hundreds of settlers who stormed apartments they had purchased, after it became clear that construction company Heftsiba had collapsed...[and] the court apparently has given approval to the existing status quo in the area - the existing part of the neighborhood will remain in place, but plans to expand the neighborhood will not be carried out.

[29] According to the New Left Review, the settlements around Bil'in are being funded by Israeli businessmen Lev Leviev and Shaya Boymelgreen to promote their political and economic interests.

[30][31] Since January 2005, the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall, led by Iyad Burnat,[32] has been organizing weekly protests against the construction of the West Bank Barrier.

[34] Two Bil’in protests in the summer of 2005 are described in detail by Irish journalist David Lynch in his book, A Divided Paradise: An Irishman in the Holy Land.

[41] In August 2006, a demonstration against the 2006 Lebanon War was dispersed by the Israel Border Police using tear gas and rubber coated bullets.

[43] Mairead Maguire, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work on the Northern Ireland dispute, was hit in the leg by a rubber-coated bullet and reportedly inhaled large quantities of teargas during a demonstration in April 2007.

[45] In April 2009, Bil'in resident Bassem Ibrahim Abu-Rahma was killed after being hit in the chest by a high-velocity tear gas canister.

[46][47] Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was arrested in December 2009 after organizing an exhibit of spent ammunition used against the protesters.

[52] On 15 March 2010, Israeli soldiers entered Bil'in to post notices declaring a closed military zone consisting of the areas between the barrier and the town.

[56] On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahmeh, 29, was killed after being struck in the chest by a teargas canister fired by Israeli forces during a protest in Bil'in.

The decision to close the case was appealed by two attorneys, Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man and Michael Sfard, on behalf of the family, who accused the authorities of foot-dragging.