April 2025
NVI Co-Director Michael Beer, vigiling to remind Holocaust Museum visitors to learn the Museum's lesson: Never Again for Anyone and therefore to stop US support for the genocide in Gaza.
See our Youtube video of April 2025 vigil here.
https://youtube.com/shorts/cyXPR7qXDP8?si=Bq_V_qcYRwkpxzVG
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January 2024 US Holocaust Memorial Museum Supporters Project “Stop the Genocide In Gaza” on Exterior
Check out this two minute video!
(Jonathan Kuttab in front of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
(Michael Beer calling for a ceasefire now)
(Marianne Ehrlich Ross, Holocaust survivor and Museum Supporter)
Michael Beer talked about this event on this podcast.
Timestamp 13:10
Nonviolence International Media Release
Date: January 4, 2024
Spokesperson: Michael Beer, 202 244 0951, [email protected]
US Holocaust Museum Supporters Show “Stop the Genocide In Gaza” on Exterior
Washington DC: Wednesday evening, supporters of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum projected photographs and slides on the exterior walls calling on the world to “Never Again” tolerate genocide for anyone. The photographs showed scenes of atrocities in Gaza with words saying “Stop the Genocide in Gaza” “Ceasefire Now” and “Silence=Death.”
“We are here to help fulfill the mission of the Holocaust Museum which is to ensure that ethnic cleansing and genocide never happens again for all people not just Jews” said organizer, Michael Beer, Director of Nonviolence International, himself a descendent of Holocaust victims. “As a an institution created by Congress”, he said, “the Museum has a special responsibility to speak up against genocide in Gaza, in part, because US weapons and support are involved.”
The projection on two western walls of the Museum follows a tradition of anti-genocide images on the Museum with regards to Darfur and internal exhibits regarding the Rohingya.
Helping with the projection was Marianne Ehrlich Ross, a Holocaust survivor, and long time supporter of the Museum, who spoke about her experience being expelled from Vienna, then Prague, and then being stranded in England during the war. She is shocked that Israel, with US support, is engaging in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and asked the Museum to not be silent on the present war on the Palestinian people - or anyone else.
Explaining the pictures of destruction and suffering in Gaza, Jonathan Kuttab, Director of Friends of Sabeel North America, spoke about his experience of Palestinians suffering from expulsion, occupation and murder on a vast scale. He spoke to the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe and said that “it is tragic that the Jewish state is perpetrating ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide.” Kuttab, a renowned International human rights lawyer, said “the Genocide Convention is clearly being openly violated by Israel and the US. I call on the Museum to live up to its stated mission which is to prevent and oppose genocide across the whole world.”
Scott Weinstein, a health care provider, spoke in French and English as a Canadian Jew, saying that the Israeli government’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is causing more anti-Semitism. “The October 7th attacks against Israel came about partially as a response to generations of Israeli abuse and that this should be a wake up call for the need for justice for Palestinians, not revenge.”
In 1993, Beer and Starhawk organized a large alternative opening ceremony for the Museum urging the inclusion of the persecution and extermination of homosexual and bisexual men which the Museum promptly did. Beer and Starhawk sent an open letter in November, 2023 calling on the Museum replicate its 1993 inclusive response and to again fulfill its mission to end genocide against all people. Beer said “we stated on this Museum plaza then and today, “Silence=Death”.
This action was endorsed by Nonviolence International, Jewish Voice for Peace-DC Metro, and Friends of Sabeel North America. A video of the event can be found here.
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November 10, 2023
Letter to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Silence = Death
Dear US Holocaust Memorial Council Chair, Stuart E. Eizenstat,
The huge pogrom attack on Jewish communities near Gaza, and revenge attack on 2.2 million Palestinian Gazan residents raises the painful question – What can and should the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) do now? The Holocaust Museum has shown years of leadership as it seeks to inspire “citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.” The Museum also memorializes the experience of Jews and the cancer of anti-Semitism and humanizes other victim communities of the Holocaust.
The Museum has come a long way. We organized an alternative opening ceremony of the Holocaust Museum in 1993 because the official ceremony explicitly excluded Gay/Bi/Lesbian people (homosexuals). Within the year, the Museum embraced the pink triangle Holocaust story and doubled down on its inclusion of other victim groups such as the Roma, people with disabilities, Slavs and others. To ensure that the Museum maintains its contemporary relevance, it created the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide whose purpose is genocide prevention, crisis response, justice and accountability. Recently, the Museum’s exhibition on the genocide of the Rohingya was a strong political statement and superbly presented.
Last month, the museum (on the Press Room webpage) condemned the horrific attacks on Israel and Jews by Hamas on October 7th and then released a statement in defense of the State of Israel. Yet, when it comes to genocidal threats and the attack on 2.2 million Palestinian people, (not to mention scores of Jewish pogroms on many communities in the West Bank), the Holocaust Museum website appears to be silent. Setting the bombing (and 10,000 deaths) aside, halting water, food, medicine and fuel to an entire population is barbaric and genocidal. The fact that this is being done by a Jewish state is doubly tragic and ironic.
Attacks on Palestinian civilians and the death of thousands of children will not make Israel safe; it will only foster more anger and resentment. Only a just resolution of the conflict can assure true peace for Israel and Palestine alike.
At the alternative opening ceremony in 1993, we laid a pink triangle flower arrangement on the Museum Plaza with a black and white sign that read “Silence = Death.” This referenced the silence of the Museum toward Gay & Bisexual men as well as the silence of policy makers and society towards a generation of Gay & Bisexual men who died unnecessarily from AIDS.
Will the Museum speak up for a Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire and humanitarian assistance for all? Will it help decision-makers, the military, and the public work to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians now and in the longer term?
The mission of the Holocaust Museum should be universal, not one primarily based in the exceptionalism of Jews. There is an urgent and dramatic opportunity for the Holocaust Museum to elevate its mission of Never Again. Silence in this case means death for countless Palestinian people.
Shalom,
Michael Beer
Starhawk
Michael Beer serves as the Director of Nonviolence International and author of Civil Resistance Tactics of the 21st Century.
Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism.
The letter contents are the personal views of the Director of NVI and co-author Starhawk, and not necessarily the views of the Organization.
Downloadable PDF Version
Picture from Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)
On April 18, 2025, I stood with 24 fellow activists in a powerful interfaith act of witness outside Lockheed Martin in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It was Good Friday—a day that, within Christian tradition, remembers Jesus’ death, and its embodiment of loving sacrifice, nonviolence, and the call to justice. Together, we gathered not just as individuals, but as a united front of people of conscience, representing a broad array of faith-based groups, to speak out against war and the machinery that fuels it.
Over two hundred people of faith and conscience gathered for the demonstration, organized by the Brandywine Peace Community, Red Letter Christians and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which brought together voices from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Quaker communities—each bringing their own prayers, chants, and sacred presence. We marked the day with songs of peace, solemn reflection, and the tolling of bells as we moved in silent procession toward the entrance of the largest weapons manufacturer in the world.
Lockheed Martin is deeply enmeshed in global militarization, producing weapons used in conflicts from Ukraine to Yemen to Gaza. Our action specifically called attention to the company’s role in the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where U.S.-supplied bombs, drones, and F-35 fighter jets have played a devastating role.
Crossing onto company property was a deliberate, nonviolent act of moral resistance. We did so not to break the law for its own sake, but to confront a deeper injustice—the normalization of war as business. The arrests that followed were expected. What mattered most was bearing public witness: a collective cry for peace, an urgent call to end the arms trade, and a plea for a just future.
This Good Friday action was not isolated. It was part of a growing wave of faith-based and grassroots resistance across the country, echoing the calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and a transformation of U.S. foreign policy. As people of faith, we believe our sacred texts compel us to speak out—and to act—when human life and dignity are under assault.
We left the Lockheed gates in handcuffs, but with our heads held high. Our hope is not in weapons, but in solidarity, compassion, and the courage of community. The work continues.
“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.“
Marcel Proust
“To be outstanding leaders and achieve exceptional results, we have to change the way we think about the world and about what is possible.”
Miki Walleczek
“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”
Albert Einstein
Sami Awad giving a NLD training in Palestine, 2010
Are you in a leadership position but find yourself struggling to move forward efficiently and effectively?
Are you an activist striving to make a difference but feel stuck?
Do you want to have a breakthrough and lead with more clarity and confidence?
Are you seeking to achieve greater results in your life and for those around you?
Join Nonviolence International in the launch of their first online training program to develop strong and effective leadership in order to face the challenges we are facing in the world today.
The first session will take place on April 26th, at 11AM ET / 6pm Jerusalem time and we will have sessions for 6 consecutive weeks, with exception of May 10th.
Nonlinear Leadership Development promotes leadership paradigms that inspire leaders to think beyond traditional frameworks, by empowering individuals and communities to navigate complexities, embrace innovation, and drive positive change.
What is the Nonlinear Leadership Development Program?
It is a deep personal development program to enhance inner skills of leadership. The purpose of the program is to provide leaders with the tools that help them make the impossible possible at the level of their personal life, their work, community, and for their country.
The unique contribution of the nonlinear methodology is that it begins at the individual level, providing a methodology that can successfully put people in touch with their innate leadership potential by unleashing their self-responsibility, creativity, intelligence and commitment, and by giving them a voice and direct access to action through nonlinear thinking and the power of language.
Participants start by creating the visions and strategies for leadership within themselves - understanding what it means to be a leader - and then from there they move on to serving the larger community. Furthermore, this methodology is designed to ensure sustainability through the building of a dynamic, growing network of self-organising communities.
This approach emphasizes distinguishing between interpretations and facts, enabling individuals to move beyond past traumas and make decisions aligned with future possibilities. By adopting NLT, participants are encouraged to engage in deep self-reflection, challenge existing mindsets, and cultivate self-awareness, thereby fostering environments where teams can thrive amidst uncertainty and change.
The training will be provided by our co-director, Sami Awad.
What will you learn?
What will you accomplish?
What are the requirements to participate in the training program?
To apply, please fill in the following form: APPLY NOW
Join us on April 23, for a webinar that delves into current Syrian realities and the impact of sanctions. Our experts include long time Syrian human rights leader Bassam Ishak, Syrian-American politician and lawyer Dima Moussa, NVI Board Chair Rafif Jouejati (now in Syria), and our NVI Co-Director Michael Beer who has just returned from Syria.
Guests will share their thoughts— and those of the people they represent - on what rebuilding the nation and fostering reconciliation, unity, and justice look like. This discussion will shed light on the paths to recovery and the steps needed to ensure sustainable stability, dignity, and hope for millions of Syrians.
This webinar is a unique opportunity to gain deep insights from sources who have played an important part in the struggle against tyranny and who offer valuable knowledge so you, as part of the global family committed to peace and justice, can contribute to Syria’s bright future.
Don’t miss out—register now to be part of this important conversation!
You can RSVP to attend this webinar via our sign-up page here!
David Hartsough on left, along with Laurence Henry face down neo-Nazis at Arlington Virginia desegregation sit-in in 1961. Photo by Gene Abbott. Courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
We share the passing of David Hartsough, a long-time supporter of Nonviolence International and the global nonviolence movement. David died at the age of 84 after a battle with cancer. He was a loving husband of Jan and of 2 children. He co-founded Nonviolent Peaceforce, Nonviolent Peaceworks, and World Beyond War, David was a Quaker who dedicated his life to nonviolence and a just world. His vision and commitment to nonviolence shaped countless movements. His memoir, Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist, tells the remarkable story of his decades spent on the front lines of nonviolent action. Can you believe he drove to Red Square in 1961 in a VW Bug from Berlin and protested against nuclear weapons?
Col. Ann Wright called him the “Forrest Gump” of the US Peace Movement implying that he had a knack for being present at so many historic anti-war events for 70 years. In addition to ubiquitous protesting he actively worked on numerous campaigns for peace and justice. In the late 1950’s, he was arrested for nuclear & chemical weapons ban protests, in the 1960’s, he was among the earliest to oppose the Vietnam War, through the then newly created Washington Peace Center and the Friends Committee on National Legislation. In the 1970’s he worked for the American Friends Service Committee where he opposed US wars in Central America and supported the pioneering use of nonviolence intervention by Peace Brigades and Witness for Peace. He became so enamored with nonviolent intervention that In 1996 he presented his idea of a large scale nonviolent army to intervene in conflicts around the world at NVI’s global conference Mainstreaming Peace Teams. His dream later came to fruition at the 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace where he met Michael Beer, Mel Duncan and Timmon Wallis and Nonviolent Peaceforce was provisionally born.
In 1996, he traveled to Kosovo to support and train the nonviolent student movement in its resistance to Serbian rule and repression. He then encouraged NVI Director, Michael Beer to follow to provide more coaching and training on nonviolent resistance. In the 2000’s, he was repeatedly arrested for opposing US wars against Muslim countries and co-led a peace delegation to Iran. He then helped David Swanson start the World Beyond War, for which NVI, through David’s suggestion, served briefly as a fiscal sponsor. He was a life-long war-tax resister and supporter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
But his legacy was not just about ending war. He met Dr. King in Alabama as a young teenager and was a courageous activist in the sit-in movement that ended segregation in the DC area. He was arrested uncountable times for environmental, poverty alleviation, anti-racism, and social justice issues. In 2011, he was one of the co-founders of the Occupy Movement in Washington DC. Although not a wealthy man, he was a generous financial supporter of all NVI initiatives including our projects in Russia, Iran, Kosovo, Tibet, Palestine, Burma, and Western Sahara. He donated his massive nonviolent training collection that has been partially digitized and uploaded to NVI’s Nonviolence Training Archives.
NVI is sad to see him leave us but grateful for his relentless support and encouragement. What a remarkable nonviolent life!
Co-Director Michael Beer helped lead some of the initial protests by Federal Workers in the Senate. Much work remains to reinstate workers and to challenge the illegal firings of tens of thousands of government workers and contractors. NVI remains committed to nonviolently mobilizing public support in the US and globally against criminal actions by the Trump administration.
Article on reinstating fired workers
https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-administration-reinstating-24500-fired-workers-after-court-order-2025-03-18/
This week, NVI Director Michael Beer, helped launch a “Job Fair” at the US Senate. Each day this week, illegally fired federal workers have walked into senate offices with resumes asking for jobs. These federal workers meet with Senators and staff and tell their stories of being fired from US Aid for International Development, Social Security, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Energy and many others.
Many of them had worked in the government for less than 2 years. Many have worked for decades and had strong job performance evaluations. All were highly skilled and some had previously worked for much higher salaries in the private sector. They fear that the vital work of their agencies will be dismantled and that people around the world will suffer because of the damage done to health and energy research or a sudden halt in humanitarian aid.
Here are some articles about the unconventional lobbying.
Here is a Washington Post Article.
You can hear some of these workers in their own words.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGV7h1Gx2sR/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGdvjVExh0L/
Most of these folks have never lobbied before. But they are angry and want to do something. Hopefully they can persuade/pressure Senators to stand up to Musk and Trump and stop these attacks on federal workers and on these congressionally funded agencies.
These firings are an attempt to cripple government services and force them to be privatized. Other agencies like the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau are cops who prevent and reverse financial fraud perpetrated by big firms and the oligarchs.
Others are doing a sit-in as we do this write-up.
Here is a good primer for those looking for something to do.
https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/
Also, take a look at NVI’s huge database of 346 nonviolent tactics and get inspired and the number of things you can do.
As we start the Holy month of Ramadan, we would like to highlight one of our newest partners, Global Committee for Dignity for Palestinians, a locally-led, grassroots effort to raise funds and mobilize resources to meet critical health needs such as access to food, water, and shelter. The Gaza community is facing unprecedented daily attacks and campaigns of ethnic cleansing that uses starvation and cutting of basic medical needs as a weapon. This is a project that is committed to the resiliency and steadfastness of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.
Dignity for Palestinians (D4P) was founded in March 2024 by Dr. Musallam Abukhalil, who was at the time a leading physician and manager of a primary care clinic within a school shelter in Western Nusierat, in the Gaza Strip. With extensive first-hand experience addressing the medical needs of the local shelter community, which serves a population of at least 25,000 according to official figures, Musallam realized that his role as a clinician wasn't enough. Donations allow D4P to Musallam and his colleagues to continue their initiatives, which include providing:
Since its founding a year ago, D4P has delivered over $150,000 in resources to assist the most vulnerable and fragile groups within and beyond the local shelter community.
Photo 1: Eid Chocolate bar for Children Distribution, April 14, 2024.
As funding and support from USAID and other organizations is ending, and humanitarian aid access to the strip has been shut down again by the Israeli government, D4P’s work is now more important than ever. They are working to expand beyond their current footprint to Northern Gaza and elsewhere throughout the strip and make their distributions more frequent.
One day before Ramadan on February 28, the D4P team distributed food parcels to displaced families in Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij camps. These areas have faced severe destruction, with 40% of the infrastructure leveled, leaving families in critical conditions.
Each parcel includes essentials:
- Rice, lentils, cooking oil, sugar, salt
- Canned beans, chickpeas, pasta
- Tea, halva, sesame butter, cheese, macaroni, dates, and strawberry jam
Photo 2: February 28, 2025 Distribution
In Al-Maghazi, they focused on large families with no income, orphaned children, and people with disabilities. The camp’s infrastructure is heavily damaged, making daily survival a struggle.
In Al-Bureij, they reached families from Eastern Bureij, an area now reduced to rubble. The camp has a volunteer-run medical point, and D4P provided parcels to their families as a gesture of gratitude. These volunteers offer critical care without salaries, leaving their own families in need.
Photo 3: February 28, 2025 Distribution
To learn more about Dignity for Palestinians and support their work, visit their partner page on NVI’s website and scroll to the bottom of the page to donate! (preferably monthly?)
You can also follow them on Instagram @dignity4palestine and on their Dignity for Palestinians Campaign Facebook page.
Please consider contributing Zakat and/or funds if you are able, and share with others who may be willing to contribute as well.
Thank you for your support, and Ramadan Mubarak.
PS: Nonviolence International congratulates Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor on their Oscar win for their powerful documentary, No Other Land. Your courageous storytelling amplifies the daily struggle for justice in Palestine and inspires us all to stand in unwavering solidarity with those defending their land, their rights, and their dignity around the world.
One thing that is always missing in people’s approach to Palestine/Israel is empathy: the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another person, see things from their perspective, and be willing to apply to yourself the same standards you apply to others. In short, it is the Golden Rule promulgated by Christianity, Judaism and Islam among others. This is lacking among most of the antagonists on the ground, but it is also equally lacking in many of their respective supporters abroad.
The lack of empathy became crystal clear this past week in the public discourses surrounding Israeli and Palestinian babies:
The entire nation of Israel was gripped by a frenzy of anguish and disgust over confirmation of the deaths and release of the bodies of the Bibas babies, Ariel and Kfir, aged 9 months and 4 years old, who were kidnapped together with their mother on October 7. The manner in which their bodies were returned (including the snafu of initially returning the wrong body of the mother) as part of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel was also a subject of fraught discussion. Haaretz reports that the reactions of the Israeli public, politicians, and commentators were the fiercest they had been since October 7. Israeli officials further claimed that their forensic examination indicates that the babies had been “beaten to death by hand,” not killed in an Israeli air strike as Hamas claims. Neither account of their death could be verified independently. Amidst the anguish and trauma, calls for vengeance, genocide, and the killing of all Gazans have been nearly unprecedented. While I do not know a single Palestinian who justifies the kidnapping of babies and I have seen no reports of anyone making statements supporting it, the reaction by most Palestinians was to repeat the Hamas line that they had been killed by an Israeli airstrike and that Hamas had offered to return their bodies as late as November. Few offered any heartfelt regret, apology, or understanding for the horror, anguish, and utter depravity of kidnapping innocent babies in the first place. That was a clear failure of empathy.
Meanwhile, the heart-wrenching story appeared about seven Palestinian babies who died of hyperthermia in Gaza from the cold weather this week. Their homes had been destroyed, and their families could not get heat in their tents or the prefabricated caravans, promised but not delivered which had been part of the agreement. There was insufficient fuel and no medical facilities. Seven babies died from the cold, and others are in critical conditions at the understaffed remains of medical facilities still operating in Gaza. These babies will be added to the long list of babies killed in Gaza, including the ones left in the incubators at the Nasser Hospital when it was forcibly evacuated and were left to die as the Israeli army failed to care for them. Israeli (and especially US) media failed to mention those babies and their deaths. Their names are not known, and their numbers are disputed (as Palestinian sources are continually treated with suspicion). Some popular Israeli social media accounts even mocked and gloated over their deaths. Again, this is a massive failure in the display of empathy.
The point is not to show who suffered more, or even to pretend there is any symmetry between the two sides. Each and every death of these babies is a tragedy of immense dimensions. One baby killed, one innocent life snuffed out is equivalent to the destruction of an entire universe. And, failure to give proper dignity to the enemy deceased is equally appalling on both sides. Rather than use these outrages as a call for revenge and justification for further atrocities, or excuse them by pointing to atrocities on the other side, there is a need for empathy, compassion and deep understanding of the sorrow of others and of their loss and grief.
This is not just a call for fairness, justice and equity. It is a basic need for the survival of all people. Whatever the past injustices or traumas experienced by anyone, the current reality is that 14 million people currently live in the Holy Land, roughly half of them Jewish and the other half Arab, and they seem destined to live together for the foreseeable future. They cannot however enjoy any kind of life if either of them thinks of the other as subhuman or illegitimate, as totally evil, vile creatures who need to be destroyed, denied equal rights, or physically eliminated. Empathy begins the process of healing our traumas and forces us to think of new modalities of behavior that include the rights and humanity of others.
As Palestinians and Israeli Jews struggle with the herculean task of exercising empathy, despite their own fears or traumas, there is absolutely no excuse for failure of those of us with a little more distance from the horror to exercise empathy and recognize the humanity of all God’s children—if only for the babies involved.
