Where is your CVC code?
I have spent my life advocating for Palestinians and Israelis to use nonviolent means to resolve their conflicts. Because Israel feared Palestinian unity and mass nonviolent action, I was expelled by the government in 1988. Since then, I have, on several occasions, personally advocated with Hamas leaders to abandon armed struggle and embrace nonviolent campaigns. Yet, today, Palestinians and Israelis are once again killing each other.
I grieve for the unspeakable deaths in Palestine and Israel. I weep for the injured and the captured, particularly the children. In this century alone, until last week, more than 12,000 Palestinians and 2,600 Israelis have been killed in the conflict. Why can’t we stop this cycle of violence?
I urge Hamas and the Israeli government to agree to an immediate ceasefire, including an immediate halt to rocket attacks towards Israel and Israeli military attacks on Gaza. Each party must stop using violence and must commit to living and working with each other as neighbors. Human life and dignity are precious. Vengeful attacks only deepen hatreds and mistrust. Here are some practical nonviolent steps:
For Palestinians: Stop the killing of Israelis. Welcome Israelis as neighbors and recognize their history. Keep struggling for equal rights. Work to end apartheid with Israelis even if you don’t fully agree on all politics. And for heaven’s sake, choose our leaders through regular elections.
For Israelis: Stop killing Palestinians. End the siege of Gaza. Reverse the land grabs in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which breed hopelessness and outrage. End apartheid and stop seeking Jewish supremacy. Support a right of Palestinian return and reparations. Stop the pogroms and the threats to the Al Aqsa mosque.
For the international media: Cover this conflict the way you would have liked to have seen slave rebellions and or anti-colonial massacres covered in previous centuries. Stop using the word “terrorists” to describe actors on either side. Both are motivated by perceptions of security and historical identity and are not simply trying to create fear, i.e. “terror,” in the other.
For Americans: There is no military solution. Stop supplying weapons. Let’s support Israelis and Palestinians equally. Show a positive example by improving our treatment of Native Americans and ending the vestiges of our domestic racial apartheid.
For the international community: The two-state solution, unfortunately, is no longer an option. Support solutions that provide rights to all peoples in the region. Keeping Gaza as an open-air prison is criminal. Therefore, have it declared as such, by international and political bodies. Provide humanitarian aid and denounce apartheid. Work for justice and equality.
Humanitarian aid organizations: Urgent humanitarian action is needed, including the establishment of a humanitarian corridor both within and outside of Gaza, for the safe movement of people and the delivery of essential supplies.This includes opening Erez and Kerem Shalom/Abu Salem crossings to allow for the movement of people and goods and remove the ban on access to the sea.
Soldiers and armed actors: Don’t cut another’s life short. Don’t cut your life short. Don’t seek revenge. I applaud Israelis who are refusing military service to engage in a senseless attack on Gaza. Arms are for hugging, not for harming others. We can do this.
Steps toward peace in Israel are not violence and more violence. For even if one side wins in the beginning, seeds of resentment and revenge are planted, take root among the so called defeated, only to appear in the form of greater violence in the future. History demonstrates this reality.
Steps toward peace in Israel, and everywhere else, are intentions that are actualized by seeing the world out of the eyes of the adversary with the further intent of doing onto the other what one would like done to one’s self. With that in mind, the first step is to build empathy teams among the people of Israel and their associate Palestinians. True, team building takes time but the present conflict has been going on for 75 years. Lets do it. And lets have the International Community support it not only financially but emotionally.
I’ve seen no one suggest that the hostages should be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners . Could you do that, Mubarak?
Sincerely, Margaretta Edwards (gretaedwards@ntlworld.com
Thank you so much for this! My ongoing question is what is the vision what’s the occupation is over for how the land will be shared? Praying for peace, Susala
Great article Mubarak! The Palestinians and Israelis and the world need your wisdom and commitment to justice, peace and nonviolence more than ever.
David Hartsough
A vision is outlined in Jonathan Kuttab’s short book (essential reading and available free from NVI) “Beyond the Two State Solution” https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/beyond2states
Thank you, Mubarak, for continuing to give leadership to everyone who is open to life and to peace. Your steadfastness and clarity at a time when our hearts are breaking and we’re tempted by despair, well: what an example you set! Thank you, thank you.
George
Thanks Mubarak. It’s so helpful to see this in one place, particularly when people are stuck within the cycles. I’d love to understand your contention that a two-state solution is impossible and if you have a more fleshed out of vision for what is.
well said!!
my feelings exactly – all the way
Thank you Mubarak Awad! i have sent this wisdom to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and my own Member of the Canadian Parliament. it is good to hear this wisdom from you, having heard you present years ago in Toronto when i was working for Canadian Friends Service Committee.
I found this a moving piece of wisdom and constructive guidance in response to the distressing and destructive war taking place among fellow human beings with the capacity to regain the powers residing in their abandoned better selves. They must return to seeing themselves in one another and taking the paths to recovery for all of them and the future of their young. I thank Mubarak Awad for his persistence and high regard and hopes for peace among the Israelis and Palestinians.
“Both are motivated by perceptions of security and historical identity and are not simply trying to create fear, i.e. “terror,” in the other.”
Although I respect Mr. Awad’s commitment to peace and nonviolence in the region and share many of his sentiments, I have difficulty embracing his conviction that the two sides are not trying to create terror in the other. The atrocities committed on both sides are well documented and as gruesome as anything history has ever witnessed in war. I will not detail them here but if the term “terror” does not apply then the word simply has no meaning at all. At this stage, the hatred between the two (Hamas and Israel) is so intense that the only logical objective behind their tactics is to induce paralyzing fear.
I thank God for all such wisdom and loving responses to an intolerable situation. May this voice prevail.
I agree that the goal of the militants is to create terror and attrition for the opposing side. That’s a classic military goal: demoralize your enemy. Unfortunately, both militant sides have a ratcheting effect on the conflict. Luckily there are many sides to this conflict more than just the hardliners. I don’t pretend to know much about the Middle East, but that much is clear. I spent some time in Colombia reading and hearing about the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia: the armed drug dealing rebels and the Colombia Army at war. They somehow found a way to meet in Cuba for an armistice in my lifetime. Northern Ireland, that old chestnut, probably gets trotted out about Israel and Palestine more than most conflicts. They found solutions and now visiting Ireland you can scarcely remember the Troubles. New generations bring so much promise and hope…if they embrace peace. Can it be done? Yes. Will it be clean and easy with all the numerous political actors and the regional oil wealth a consideration to the various global empires vying for supremacy? No. What worthy goal is easy?
“For Palestinians: Stop the killing of Israelis. Welcome Israelis as neighbors…”
This would require a complete reversal of everything Hamas has said and done. They have made it clear that not only must Israel cease to exist as a state, that Muslims must control “from the river to the sea,” but that Jews are unwelcome in that part of the world.
“Stop using the word ‘terrorists’ to describe actors on either side. Both are motivated by perceptions of security and historical identity and are not simply trying to create fear, i.e. ‘terror,’ in the other.”
I must disagree. Isn’t the October 7 attack clear enough evidence that Hamas by your own standard is a terrorist organization?
Thank you, Mubarak! We are listening…
Thank you for your analysis. I deeply appreciate your lifelong commitment to a just peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.
I think you have won me over to the conclusion that the only go forward is an one state solution.
Part of the struggle in getting there will be to agree on a common narrative that explains how the animosity of the past 75 years transitioned into welcome – not only the Israelis welcoming the Palestinians as full citizens into places understood today to be exclusive to Israelis – but the Palestinians welcoming Israelis into a land that 80 years ago was exclusively theirs.
I will support both sides, until the final peace amen Every harm is an injury to Jesus Christ amen Let’s love amen
You forgot one very important factor. Unsustainable population growth on both sides of the conflict, in a region with limited land and water. A reduced birth rate would help ease crowding and shortages and ease the conditions which result in conflict.
For Christians:
If you are among those who believe that Armageddon should be encouraged by human events in the interest of hastening the end of days, you must now give up those beliefs. No violent conflict such as now engulfs Israel and its neighbors on virtually all sides can justify any such warped doctrine.
If, on the other hand, you pray for peace, speak up every chance you can in defense of the Palestinian people. Work against US and other funding of Israeli military capabilities. Remember, neutrality in the face of oppression is complicity.
Beautifully and succinctly articulated. I will advocate for this position. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I was lifted to see George Lakey’s comment to Mr. Awad…Bows to these real heroes of our time who’ve been in the struggle for so long…https://www.firstofthemonth.org/a-palestinian-gandhi/
My heartfelt longing is fir these words of wisdom to be read by millions and enacted by all concerned. Let’s work towards peace.
In 1988, I travelled to Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem with Allen Ginsberg. Our trip had two purposes. One was to give poetry readings in support of the new Hebrew translation of Allen’s “Kaddish” by Natan Zach. The other reason for the trip was to investigate, on behalf of the PEN Club’s Freedom to Write Committee, censorship of the Palestinian press. We met with Dr. Awad in his office and discussed the non-violent campaign he was then leading. Shortly after our visit, he was deported by the authorities. Just now, out of despair at the violent language we are now hearing in the media and even among friends and colleagues, I searched the web, knowing that Dr. Awad would have a message to share. Thank you for making this available. Dr. Awad, if you read this, I send you greetings and thanks from the poets of New York. I hope you are able to reach a broad audience with your wisdom.
Steven Taylor