"I Want Us To Learn From Their Mistakes": An Interview With Nafez Asseily in Jerusalem Nafez Asseily became Acting Director of the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence after Mubarak Awad, the original director, was deported by Israeli authorities in June 1988. The interview is by Shelley Anderson, editor of Reconciliation International. What kind of work does the Centre do? When we began the Centre in 1985, we found out that the Israelis occupied the Territories and sold their products to the Palestinians, and Palestinians then sold their occupiers' products. The Occupation made money from the Palestinians. Literally, we are paying for the Occupation which rules us. The first thing we did was to make a poster and distribute it among Palestinians that said, "Eat and Drink Local Products Only!" We didn't ask them to boycott Israeli products because this is 'incitement' and would have given the occupiers an excuse to put us in jail and close the Centre. This appeal worked. We found out that the Israelis, in fifteen months, lost two and a half million dollars. Then we began to do studies about nonviolence in the Arab world and in Islam and to translate and print books about nonviolence. We wrote newspaper articles to try to promote an understanding of nonviolence in the Palestinian community. Unfortunately, this rarely worked, because Israeli authorities censored many of our articles. So we made a project called Library on Wheels to make publications available in Arabic. These aren't war stories but stories about values, about Arab history. We go into communities and people ask about our library, which gives us the opportunity to explain nonviolence. We send our books now to about thirty kindergartens in the Territories, from Hebron to Ramallah. Palestinians began to come to the Centre to ask for help about land confiscation or family reunification issues. We helped Palestinians in some villages get their land back by taking the Israeli fences down. In other villages, the authorities confiscated land which they considered no man's land, and they ripped up trees. We found out the land really belonged to the villages, and we replanted olive trees on the land. Some Jews helped us. We also prayed on the land - we told the authorities we were not demonstrating, we were praying, because the land belonged to Palestinians both spiritually and physically. We are now doing a study for parents and teachers on how to teach children about peace. We use a booklet with verses from the Quran, the Old Testament and the New Testament. We are also simplifying the book A Man to Match His Mountain: A Nonviolent Soldier of lslam for children from ten to fifteen years old. We work on family reunification. Immediately after the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the Territories, many Palestinian husbands who had been going to other Arab countries for work, children who were going to different Arab universities, and women and children who were visiting relatives in other Arab countries, were suddenly cut off from home. The lsraelis created boundaries and did a census on the people inside the boundaries. Those outside at the time automatically lost their permanent residency. We have 140,000 cases of families separated this way, and new ones every day. Husbands are asking for their families, families are asking for their mothers, wives are asking for their husbands or children. This is a different kind of suffering. We can appreciate the world's support for Soviet Jews to be reunited with their families. We ask support from the world to reunite Palestinian families, because the feelings are the same. Many people in the West think of Holy Wars, of violence, when they think of Islam. What are the roots of nonviolence in lslam? In the Quran, the relationship between Muslims and others, especially Christians and Jews, is specified. In Chapter 2, verse 62, it says that Jews and Christians believe in the Last Day and in the Lord, and there should be no fear or grief between the people of the Holy Book. There are many verses in the Quran about patience, tolerance, reconciliation and peace. There is a verse that says, "Be patient and excel with patience, until you are successful." This tells us not to provoke others, to be patient until they see the injustice they do. Jihad doesn't mean holy war. Jihad means effort. When I want to look after my family, I need to make an effort. When I make jihad, it means I make all the effort possible so my family have what they need. All those who came to this conference on social defence are mujahideen - they all made an effort to be here. The other meaning of jihad is to resist the evil in yourself, to make an effort so the good side wins over the bad side. You have to resist the aggression you have, the hatred inside yourself, against your mistrust of others and your fear. So you make jihad so the good side wins. You know, on our hands [Nafez turns his palms up and traces the lines] in Arabic this line spells out eight and this line spells out one. In our tradition this refers to the 99 names of God mentioned in our Holy Quran. This means whenever you are doing good with your hands, you honour the sacred names of God printed on your hands. Whenever you do bad with your hands, you desecrate the names of God, which in Islam is a sin. If you kill someone whose hands also bear the names of God, it means you hate God in him. How did you become involved in nonviolence? My primary school was Roman Catholic, my high school was a Coptic Orthodox, and my university was Muslim. This interfaith experience which helped me discover the values in other faiths. The turning point in my life came when I read a newspaper article on the film Gandhi. The article told how Gandhi kept the English from occupying his country by peaceful means. The newspaper had a quote from Gandhi, about how he wanted the English to see the wisdom in leaving his country. When I read that, it opened my eyes. I could see how nonviolence could free the Occupied Territories. I read about Gandhi in detail, and about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tolstoy. I wrote a paper on this subject for my course in Palestinian Studies. From then on I knew nonviolence could achieve what violence had failed to achieve. I became committed to nonviolence in principle and in action. Then I met Dr. Mubarak Awad and we became friends. He started the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence and we worked together. I helped to start Palestinians and Israelis for Nonviolence, an affiliate to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. How does being part of an international movement help the struggle in Palestine? In fact the international nonviolent organisations are not doing what they should do. They didn't sponsor any of our projects. If a group would sponsor the Library on Wheels or help with family reunification, that would be appreciated. We get some support in the news from them, but not concrete support. Is there one example that stands out in your mind when you think of nonviolence? The Intifada. The Intifada, for me, is not only an uprising. It is a purification. The Occupation planted hatred, mistrust and fear in Palestinians. They created fear in us and reminded us of what would happen if we resisted. Fear is like a monkey on our backs. The Intifada happened because Palestinians wanted to purify themselves from fear and mistrust, to stand up and say no to repression. The Intifada means not just uprising, but purification. In Islam, when we go to Mecca for pilgrimage, we must throw forty-nine stones in order to purify ourselves and say extra prayers. The Intifada is not what you see on television. There you see only violent actions. If someone is killed or there are stone throwings, the reporters go and report it. But these reporters do not see the women who are planting gardens in an effort to establish a self-sufficient economy. They are not interested in the medical relief teams that help Palestinians in isolated villages. The Israelis closed the schools, but we have developed our own curriculum and educational system. All this is not interesting for the cameras. Throwing stones is a low level of violence. It's not equal to their guns or bullets. There are two facts about nonviolence in Palestine. The first is since Israel was established, it has tried very hard to achieve peace and security by force. They failed. We in Palestine tried for forty-three years to achieve our goals by armed struggle. We failed. So both armed struggles failed to achieve their goals. It's time for nonviolence. No-one can give the Israelis peace - only the Palestinians can give them peace. The US can give them money and weapons but not peace. And the only people who can give us peace are the Israelis. The Arabs can give us money and weapons but not peace. We must act on these facts. Ask an Israeli what he thinks of Palestinians, he'll say, "They're terrorists." Ask a Palestinian what he thinks about Israelis, he'll say, "They're murderers." We must change this through education. I took my son to see a kibbutz so he could see the good side of the Israelis. My son saw the kindergarten with swings and slides. He climbed up the slide and shouted, "The voice of the Intifada is stronger than the Occupation!" I shouted out to him to be quiet, that we are now in Israel. "But I don't see any soldiers," he said. That to him is what Israel is. It was time to show him the good side of Israel. I want very much for the Palestinian state to be established in nonviolence, because then it can continue in nonviolence. Israel was established by force and it continues by force. I want us to learn from their mistakes. (Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence, Nuzha Building, Box 20999, East Jerusalem, via Israel; tel. 972 2 27 2982) Peace Media Service, January 1991 Kanisstraat 5 1811 GJ Alkmaar Holland Ph. (+31 72) 11 25 45 Fax. (+31 72) 15 41 80 Email via Greennet: gn.peacemedia postgiro account: 476143 Peace Media Service is the only news agency set up to concentrate on groups and individuals working to build a just society through nonviolent methods. Ten times a year we send out the PM packet: news, interviews and background reports from every part of the world, as well as a selection of graphics. 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