Mubarak Awad

Mubarak Awad (Template:Langx) is a Palestinian-American psychologist and an advocate of nonviolent resistance.

Early life and move to the United States

Awad, a Palestinian Christian (a member of the Greek Orthodox Church), was born in 1943 in Jerusalem when it was under the British Mandate.Template:Sfn When Awad was five years old, his father was killed during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and he became a refugee in the Old City of Jerusalem.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His mother was a pacifist and argued against revenge.Template:Sfn He was given the right to Israeli citizenship in 1967 when East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel after the Six-Day War but refused and kept his Jordanian citizenship.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Mennonite and Quaker missionaries influenced Awad's views in his youth.Template:Sfn In the 1960s he moved to the United States to study at the Mennonite Bluffton University and received a BA in social work and sociology.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He went on to obtain an MS in education from Saint Francis University and a PhD in psychology from the International Graduate School of Saint Louis University.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1978 and settled in a small town in Ohio.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Career

National Youth Advocate Program

Awad was the founder and former president of the National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP) in the United States.Template:Sfn The organization developed from the Ohio Youth Advocate Program (OYAP) established by Awad in 1978 with support from the Ohio Youth Commission (now the Department of Youth Services), the state department responsible for finding placements for "at risk" youth referred to the state from county juvenile courts.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

As an offshoot of NYAP, he later founded and directed Youth Advocate Program International, headquartered in Washington, DC.Template:Sfn According to the website, "The Youth Advocate Program International, Inc. (YAP International) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It established its headquarters and advocacy center in Washington, DC in 1996. YAP International's mission is to promote and protect the rights and well-being of the world's youth, giving particular attention to children victimized by conflict, exploitation, and state and personal violence."Template:Sfn

Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence

In 1983 Awad returned to Jerusalem and established the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence (PCSN).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Before the intifada, Awad published papers and lectured on nonviolence as a technique for resisting the Israeli occupation. He wrote that nonviolence could be used as a means of resistance. The Centre also sponsored a number of nonviolent actions during the early months on the first intifada. Among the tactics employed was the planting of olive trees on proposed Israeli settlements, asking people not to pay taxes and encouraging people to eat and drink Palestinian products. In the Middle East he is often referred to as the Arab Gandhi due to the similarity between his teachings of the power of nonviolence and those of Mahatma Gandhi in India during the British Raj.Template:Sfn He believed these tactics could be used to resist the Israeli military occupation. He also drew upon the methodologies of Gene Sharp's trilogy, The Politics of Non-Violence. Using this knowledge and his experience, Awad prepared his own "12-page blueprint for passive resistance in the territories," eventually published in the Journal of Palestine Studies.Template:Sfn He has translated into Arabic the teachings of Mohatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In 1998 Mubarak Awad's nephew, Sami Awad founded the Holy Land Trust (HLT) out of PCSN.

Deportation by Israel

In 1987, Awad attempted to renew the residency permit he had been issued in 1967.Template:Sfn His application was declined and he was ordered to leave the country when his tourist visa expired.Template:Sfn Awad claimed, with support from U.S. consular officials, that under international conventions Israel did not have the right to expel him from his place of birth and he refused to leave.Template:Sfn The Israeli government stayed the deportation order mainly at the insistence of the U.S.Template:Sfn In May 1988, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir ordered Awad arrested and expelled.Template:Sfn Officials charged that Awad broke Israeli law by inciting "civil uprising" and helping to write leaflets that advocated civil disobedience that were distributed by the leadership of the First Intifada.Template:Sfn No evidence was provided to support the charge and Awad appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.Template:Sfn The court ruled that he had forfeited his right to residence status in Israel when he became a U.S. citizen and he was deported in June 1988.Template:Sfn U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz's appeal to Shamir to revoke the deportation order was declined.Template:Sfn Ian Lustick, professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, cited the ruling in Awad's case as one of a number of examples that he argues demonstrate that "[t]here has never been an official act that has declared expanded East Jerusalem as having been annexed by the State of Israel."Template:Sfn

Criticism

Critics argue that Awad advocated violence under the guise of calling it civil disobedience. In a 1984 article for the Journal of Palestine Studies, Awad stated, "for the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza the most effective strategy is nonviolence. This does not apply to the Palestinians living outside. Nor is it a rejection of the concept of armed struggle. This is nothing short of war." Awad called to "block roads, prevent communications, cut electricity, telephone, and water lines, prevent the movement of equipment, and in other ways obstruct the government." The article speaks openly about throwing stones. Awad's article called for a campaign of harassment against Israelis and for "psychological warfare" to "demoralize" the population. He also called for "the destruction of Israeli fences and power lines," according to Time magazine.

Awad has called for Israel to be replaced with Palestine. In a Jerusalem speech to Palestinian students he said "the PLO wants the entire Palestine and I agree. Palestine for me is the Galilee, Akko, Ashdod, everything. This is Palestine for me." Dr. Shlomo Riskin, founding chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the West Bank, called him "an articulate wolf in sheep`s clothing" who "clearly represents a threat to the lives of Israeli citizens." Israeli diplomat Moshe Arad in a New York Times article decried Awad who he claimed took American citizenship, in accordance with immigration law, which required that he 'intends to reside permanently in the U.S. and then turned around and claimed to the Israeli Supreme Court that his intention was always to reside in Jerusalem. "Nonviolence as merely a convenient tactic... incitement and acts of violence - are these the watchwords of a man truly committed to peace and moderation? No. Western audiences do not hear these Awad views in English. But his local audiences hear them in Arabic," Arad said.

Nonviolence International

In 1989, Awad founded Nonviolence International, a non-governmental organization in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.Template:Sfn Nonviolence International's stated mission is to promote nonviolent action and seek to reduce the use of violence worldwide.Template:Sfn

Academic career

Awad has taught at the American University in Washington, D.C. since the early 1990s.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He is an adjunct professor in the School of International Service where he teaches classes in the theories and methods of nonviolence.Template:Sfn

See also

• Palestinian Christians
• List of peace activists

Sources

• Template:Cite Q
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• Template:Cite magazine
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External links

• Template:Usurped
• Nonviolence in the Middle East: A Talk with Mubarak Awad
• Nonviolence International
• Non-Violent Resistance: A Strategy for the Occupied Territories
• The Missing Mahatma: Searching for a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King in the West Bank, by Gershom Gorenberg, Weekly Standard, 4/06/2009. Detailed history of Palestinian nonviolence, including interview with Mubarak Awad and discussion of his role, by an Israeli historian.