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Amidst war, a Palestinian nonviolence movement grows
with Ali Abu Awwad
"It's not just about meeting each other and having hummus together. It's the opposite. I always said that dialogue is not fantasy; dialogue is the secure place for argument, but not necessarily agreement. Because if we feel secure to argue, we will definitely feel secure to agree, but we don't feel secure in anything." - Ali Abu Awwad
EPISODE NOTES
Ali Abu Awwad is hard to summarize. He grew up with a mother in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and served jail time for his role in the resistance during the First Palestinian Intifada. Ironically, it was in an Israeli prison that Awwad learned the power of nonviolence when he and his mother went on hunger strike to be allowed to see each other. After his brother was killed by Israeli soldiers, his family met with a group of bereaved Jewish parents — a transformational encounter for Awwad. Witnessing the shared humanity of Palestinian and Israeli mourners, he says, "turned his world upside down."
Since 2002, Awwad has been working as a peacebuilder, giving talks across Israel, Palestine, and the world. His current work is leading Taghyeer, a Palestinian movement "to take nonviolent responsibility for self-development and forging a path to end occupation." Awwad says he founded Taghyeer to focus on the "homework" needed to lay the foundation for true Palestinian self-governance and an end to Israeli military occupation. In this conversation, Awwad gives us an intimate view of his own inner transformation and an inside look at Palestinian identity and self-determination.