Mubarak Awad

مبارك عوض

1943–present

Born: Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine

Domain: Civil Society & Religion

Recognition: GLOBAL

Biography

Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian-American psychologist and theorist of nonviolent resistance, often called the Arab Gandhi for his sustained advocacy of unarmed struggle as a path to Palestinian rights. Born in Jerusalem in 1943, he was orphaned at the age of five when his father was killed during the 1948 war and became a refugee in the Old City; his mother's pacifism left a lasting imprint on his moral outlook. He later emigrated to the United States, where he studied social work, education and psychology, earning a doctorate, and absorbed the strategies of nonviolent movements from Gandhi to the American civil rights struggle. He returned to Jerusalem in 1983 and founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence, dedicated to teaching and promoting civil resistance, civil disobedience and constructive community action. Awad's ideas helped shape the repertoire of the First Intifada, with its emphasis on strikes, boycotts, tax resistance, tree-planting and other forms of mass civil disobedience as alternatives to armed confrontation. His work made nonviolence a serious and widely discussed strand within Palestinian political culture and connected the local struggle to global traditions of peaceful resistance. His prominence brought confrontation with the authorities: in 1988 Israel deported him on the grounds that he had forfeited residency by becoming a US citizen, a case that drew international attention. From the United States he continued his advocacy, founding Nonviolence International, an organization that supports nonviolent movements around the world, and teaching new generations of activists. For civil society and religion, Awad matters as the foremost Palestinian apostle of organized nonviolence, a figure who translated ethical conviction into method and institution. His legacy lives in the continuing debates over strategy within the Palestinian movement and in the global network of activists he has mentored.

Why This Person Matters

Called the Arab Gandhi, Awad founded Palestinian nonviolence institutions and helped shape the civil-disobedience repertoire of the First Intifada, making organized nonviolence a serious strand of Palestinian political culture.