Awad, Mubarak (1951–)

Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian American nonviolent activist, youth advocate, and educator. A Christian pacifist, he has emerged as one of the leading Arab voices in support of nonviolent action. Born in 1951 in Jerusalem, then under Jordanian control, he immigrated to the United States in 1968, receiving his bachelor's degree from Bluffton University, a master's degree in education from St. Francis University, and a Ph.D. in psychology from the International Graduate School in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1978, he became the founding president of the National Youth Advocate Program, a private nonprofit international organization that serves troubled youth and families, focusing on the development and administration of programs that provide alternatives to restrictive or institutional placement for youth in need of substitute care. Emphasizing an advocate model that aims to support and surround troubled youth with positive role models in one-to-one relationships, it has served as a model for private, nonprofit youth advocate organizations worldwide and has played a role in reforming state policy in Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana.

In 1985, Awad returned to Palestine, where he founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, providing educational materials on nonviolent resistance and supporting nonviolent direct action by Palestinians living under occupation. The center also established a family reunification project and the publication and translation of writings on the theory and practice of nonviolence into Arabic. The utilization of nonviolent action on a massive scale during the first Palestinian initifada drew the attention of Israeli occupation authorities, who arrested and deported Awad in 1988.

Back in exile in the United States, in 1989 Awad became the founding president of Nonviolence International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating people worldwide about nonviolent resistance and supporting the training of activists in methods of nonviolent action for social justice. In addition to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., Nonviolence International has since established regional offices in Jerusalem, Bangkok, Belfast, Kamenshikov (Russia), and Aceh (Indonesia).

In 1994, following the Oslo Accords, Awad returned to Palestine, where he became the founding director of the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Elections. An educational project funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, the center has provided educational materials and training to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip experiencing their first opportunity to participate in open municipal and general elections and to encourage incorporating democratic concepts into the governance structure of the Palestine Authority.

Awad has lectured before audiences worldwide on nonviolent solutions to the Palestinian and Israeli conflict and support for human rights, children's rights, and the implementation of governmental policies that [Page 204]will improve the lives of young people. He has also served annually as adjunct faculty at the American University's School for International Service, teaching courses on the theory and methods of nonviolent action.