In May 2023 I and forty other diaspora Jews joined the Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV) in Palestine to engage in coresistance with Palestinians and learn from them about the daily reality of apartheid. During our time in Occupied East Jerusalem and Masafer Yatta in Area C the policies of ethnic cleansing that are hard to grasp from afar became real to me. So did the power of Palestinian resistance and steadfastness on their land.
A group of us spent several days in Sfai, a village in the southern part of the West Bank in a region called Masafer Yatta. In the 1970’s Israel declared much of Masafer Yatta as Firing Zone 918, which designates that land for military training and prohibits civilian presence. In May 2022, the Israeli high court ruled to expel the residents of Masafer Yatta living in the twelve villages located in the firing zone, including Sfai. Since then attacks from the Israeli Occupation Forces and settlers have intensified and many demolitions have been carried out.
During the few days we spent in Sfai we helped build a playground, connected with our hosts, and heard stories about resisting forced expulsion. On our first morning in Sfai, Hamdan, an activist in Masafer Yatta, brought us to the site of a demolished school. He told us about the day the school was demolished back in November 2022, how the Occupation forces blocked the doors to the school while the students were inside and started firing stun grenades at the teachers, parents, and other adults gathered. When the young students heard the stun grenades they moved to escape through the windows of the school, a place they once felt safe. And just a few weeks later, the Occupation forces came back and destroyed the tent that the school moved to after the violent demolition.
Occupation forces don’t show up with bulldozers to the Israeli settlement just a mile away, also in Firing Zone 918, even though the firing zone declaration—among other laws—prohibits their presence too. They don’t launch stun grenades at the settlers or trap their children inside of a building about to be demolished. Instead the Occupation forces work in concert with settlers, turning their heads when they attack Palestinians and even arresting Palestinians assaulted by settlers for existing on their land.
Rubble of the demolished school in Sfai
We spent the rest of our time in Sfai working on the playground: installing see-saws, planting trees, and building a fence to make it harder for settlers to damage the equipment. At the end of our last evening in Sfai, many residents joined us on the playground. Kids were running around and playing on the equipment, asking us to play games and push them on the swings. We chatted with older siblings and parents as the sky filled with the sunset. Just before the sun disappeared completely we started our walk back to our host’s home. On the way back I saw the demolished school in the near distance and felt a wave of grief. I thought about my friends, family, teachers, and rabbis, how we all bought into a vision of safety and liberation that produces this reality. Safety isn’t demolishing schools or homes, or attacking Palestinians on their own land. Liberation cannot come from forced expulsion.
The stories we heard from CJNV’s Palestinian partners made it clear: time and options are running out. Please follow and support the work of Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta as they resist the ongoing Nakba and face forced expulsion from their homes:
- Follow @youthofsumud, @basilaladraa, @ali_awad98, @samihuraini, @hamdan_mo_balall, @awdah.hathaleen, and @humansofmasaferyatta on Instagram. Please engage with their posts on social media and support their work by sharing their profiles and posts.
- For those in the US, demand that congress take action now to stop the violent, forced expulsion of the people of Masafer Yatta.
Please also support our partners and movements working for justice in Palestine:
- Join the Center for Jewish Nonviolence on the ground for the Olive Harvest later this year. Note the application deadline, July 14th, 2023.
- Support our fiscally sponsored partners working for justice in Palestine: Hebron International Resource Network, We Are Not Numbers, Holy Land Trust, and the Center for Jewish Nonviolence.
- Get involved in a movement or organization working for justice in Palestine–reach out to us if we can help guide or connect you.
At NVI our eyes have been on Jenin. As images and first hand accounts of the attacks by the Israeli Occupation Forces from Palestinians in Jenin have come out, our hearts have been filled with grief. If you have not already, please join Americans for Justice in Palestine Action in demanding Biden, Harris, and Blinken to publicly condemn Israeli assault on Jenin, here and here.
In solidarity,
Tess
P.S. Check out the articles Center for Jewish Non-Violence delegation highlights the importance of direct action in Palestine solidarity and They teach their children to hate by CJNV delegates about our experience on the ground in May!
Tess Greenwood is the Office and Intern Manager at Nonviolence International. She is a member of IfNotNow, the movement of American Jews organizing their community to end U.S. support for Israel's apartheid system and demand equality, justice, and a thriving future for all Palestinians and Israelis. She first joined the Center for Jewish Nonviolence on the ground in Palestine in June 2022 and has since participated in the Olive Harvest and the spring 2023 delegation with a focus on supporting delegates to bring their experiences back to their communities at home.
(Art Credit - Kayla Ginsburg - from CJNV)
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“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.”
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“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.
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?
- Deal effectively with breakdowns and problems on the personal, professional, community and national levels.
- Build relationships of mutual trust and respect.
- Deal effectively with what’s happening here and now.
- Build powerful networks to support you in the future.
- Create a bold future which is informed by, and honours the past, but is independent from the past.
- Accomplish breakthrough results.
- Have effective, purposeful meetings which support you in delivering on intended results.
- Understand the power and importance of creating and managing context.
What will you accomplish?
- You will get access to powerful action and result oriented language.
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- You will unlock yourself from the constraints of the past.
- You will create a future for yourself, family and community that will be inspiring and transforming.
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You will build growing dynamic networks of self organising communities which give voice to making the impossible possible.
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You will engage in the phenomena of nonlinearity, self organisation, and emergence.
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You will ask yourself: “what allows for self responsibility?”
- You will get a clear vision on decision making.
What are the requirements to participate in the training program?
- Leaders committed to a future founded on the principles of nonviolence, justice, equality and peace within society and in relation to others.
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- Leaders who want to engage in making the impossible possible in their lives.
- Leaders who are ready to challenge what they know in order to create new opportunities.
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- Selection-based process, since the attendance for this training is limited to a maximum of 25 participants, ensuring an exclusive and unique learning experience.
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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, 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!
Job Fair at the US Senate Victory: Some Workers Getting Jobs Restored...
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/
Job Fair at the US Senate to Protest Illegal Firings
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.