Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian-American psychologist and advocate of nonviolent resistance. Awad, who is also a Palestinian Christian, was born in the eastern sector of Jerusalem which was at the time, occupied by Jordan which invaded in 1948 and illegally annexed the city. He emigrated to the United States in 1969. He was given the right to Israeli citizenship in 1967, but refused and kept his Jordanian citizenship. He later became a U.S. citizen.
In 1985, Awad traveled to Israel, where he established the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence. Prior to the first 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 settlements, thereby taking advantage of the Israeli law forbidding the confiscation of land that fruit trees grow upon.
After permitting him to stay months beyond the expiration of his tourist visa, Israel expelled Awad in 1988. He returned to the United States, where he founded the organisation Nonviolence International (www.nonviolenceinternational.org), that describes it self as a decentralized network of resource centers that promote the use of nonviolent resistance. Founded by Palestinian activist Mubarak Awad in 1989, NI is a 501(c)3 organization registered in Washington, DC, USA. They are active in educating and training the public and activists in the use of nonviolent resistance. They are particularly active in Aceh, Indonesia in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
