In this Spotlight on Nonviolence, Katherine Whiteside converses with Huwaida Arraf a Palestinian activist and lawyer who is the cofounder of the International Solidarity Movement and the Free Gaza Movement. Huwaida discusses how she became involved in activism, what caused her to develop the International Solidarity Movement and how others can get involved in this powerful and important movement.
Huwaida has done amazing work in globalizing Palestinian resistance by bringing citizens from around the world to Palestine and increasing global consciousness of the human rights violations that are being kept quiet. Through these movements she has creatively used nonviolent resistance to protest against the Israeli government. If you would like to find out more about the International Solidarity Movement or how to get involved you can find it here. https://palsolidarity.org/. Additionally, Huwaida as a founder of the Free Gaza Movement was aboard boats to Gaza that protested the inhumane Israeli blockade. To find out more about US boats to Gaza, an NVI partner, check out their page under the Our Partners tab on our website.
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Dear Friends,
From March 20 to 23, NVI Co-Directors, Michael Beer, Sami Awad, and board member Mohammed Abunimer, joined the Nuestra América Delegation to Cuba as part of a much larger international convoy of more than 600 people from around the world. We came as activists, artists, influencers, faith leaders, and community organizers, united by a simple conviction: the Cuban people should not be left alone under an embargo that continues to punish ordinary life.
The delegation was supported by CODEPINK, Progressive International, Global Health Partners, and Busboys and Poets, alongside a wider network that included The People’s Forum, Cuban Americans for Cuba, and Global Exchange.
It was our first time in Cuba! What we witnessed was not theoretical, was not news reports, was not propaganda.
Havana looks like a movie set from the 1950s! The cars and buildings are stunning -- but so run down. During our time there, Cuba continued to experience major electrical outages, part of a broader energy crisis that has left entire neighborhoods in darkness and placed immense strain on daily life. The blackouts are tied to the suffocating impact of the U.S. embargo, including restrictions on oil and essential resources.
In Cuba, this is not an abstract policy debate. It means hospitals under pressure, food and medicine at risk, transportation disrupted, garbage piled in streets, markets shut, restaurants closed, and families forced to survive with less and less.
And yet what we encountered was not defeatism. It was resilience. Generosity. Dignity.
People gathered in the dark. They shared what they had. They played music and sang in the streets. We played spirited mixed-gender ultimate with them (with donated frisbees that Michael brought). That spirit stays with us.
For those of us Palestinians, this was deeply personal. We met with and were inspired by Cuban students and others from around the world including Palestinians. We know what it means to live under systems designed to isolate, weaken, and break a people. We know what it feels like when your suffering is discussed from a distance while you are still living inside it. In Cuba, we recognized something painfully familiar: a people being made to pay the price for refusing to submit.
That is why this trip was not only a solidarity visit with medical relief and aid but also an act of nonviolent defiance.
This said, the convoy defied the embargo and carried real material support. Around 20 tons of aid were delivered, including food, medicine, solar panels, and bicycles. The delegation we were part of brought thousands of pounds of medical supplies and over a hundred suitcases and boxes of humanitarian aid, all going directly to hospitals and health workers facing severe shortages.
After we returned, the delegation faced attacks and accusations meant to discredit the trip and turn solidarity into suspicion. We reject that. People can debate politics from afar, but we know what we saw. The US has no problem engaging and trading with the communist parties of Vietnam, China, Nepal, and Laos. We saw a country under enormous pressure. We saw communities enduring blackouts and shortages. We saw doctors, families, churches, and neighbors doing their best to hold life together. And we saw hundreds of people from across the world choosing not to look away.
The embargo is not just policy, it is collective punishment.
What we carried back from Cuba was more than memory, it was clarity.
The Palestine and Cuba siege are connected, and so must be our response.
What can you do?
- Learn. Stay informed. Support organizations like the ones mentioned above.
- Refuse the narratives that justify collective punishment and oppose US unilateral sanctions on Palestine, Cuba and many other countries.
- Use your voice—in your communities, your platforms, your spaces.
- And find ways—big or small—to stand in real solidarity, including joining future delegations. Visit CUBA!
With Nonviolent Defiance,
Mohammed Abunimer, Michael Beer & Sami Awad
P.S. Please remember to attend our round table Field Testing Israeli Occupation Tech: The Palestine Lab on Sunday, April 19, 2026 3pm ET and see films in advance. This Round Table centers the human impact of this experimentation, examining how Palestinian lives are used as testing grounds for weapons, AI platforms, and policing tactics later exported worldwide. Join the Q&A discussion with: Omar Zahzah, Jeff Halper, Antony Loewenstein, Hassan El-Tayyab
You must register to join the discussion & receive access to the films
Stop Escalating the War on Iran Now
By World BEYOND War, March 22, 2026
Already the rule of law has been shattered, millions have been displaced, tens of thousands have been injured and traumatized, thousands have been killed, many billions of dollars of property has been destroyed, and many billions of dollars have been spent on this criminal enterprise — with much more lost through economic impacts and the failure to spend those resources usefully. Millions of tons of C02 has been emitted, and huge areas of land, water, and air poisoned. Urban areas and cultural treasures have been obliterated, and oil rained down on people and their homes. Many millions of people have been given deep reasons to resent and hate and seek revenge, and not a single person taught the value of nonviolent action or reconciliation. The obsessive fueling of the addiction to fossil fuels has been given precedence over everything, not just human rights, but even the dedication to cruelly violating human rights — with sanctions lifted to quickly obtain and burn more oil.
It gets worse. Trump is threatening to attack Iranian power plants. The Iranian government is threatening to attack oil infrastructure in the gulf dictatorships. The human and environmental costs could soar. The precedents of Gaza and Cuba could be repeated. Or it could be even worse. On January 3, Trump’s troops nearly destroyed a nuclear reactor and storage facility in Caracas. The U.S./Israel have already attacked the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the Natanz nuclear facility. Iran has already attacked Dimona, where Israel has a nuclear plant. The risk here is of catastrophic slaughter on a whole new scale. The joy Trump publicly takes when an individual he was annoyed by dies would be multiplied a million-fold. The capacity for rational thought, not just in Trump’s head, but in the so-called U.S. government that sits by and lets him play with the fate of the world, would be virtually eliminated. All blame for U.S./Israeli horrors would be placed on Iran, and escalation would follow escalation. The kingdoms that have sat by while U.S. bases were attacked in their countries will not sit by forever, and have very little capacity for creative nonviolent action, for any means of not sitting by other than escalating the war.
The madmen in the U.S. military who think the worse things get the sooner Jesus will appear can only be encouraged by the worsening of events. The madmen running the nation of Israel have very different fantasies, and those running Iran believe they have no choice and are justified in all things by the vicious attack on Iran. If a sensible solution is to be found, the decent people of the world who wish for life to continue will have to compel the governments of the world to reject militarism and hold accountable those engaged in it. The governments of Spain and Switzerland inching away from the war machine, the individuals transporting solar panels to Cuba, the flotilla being planned to Gaza — these movements will have to grow at a Pentagon-budget-like pace. Standing up for peace will have to soon become the typical path to power for those seeking to represent others, or there will be none of us left to represent.
NVI Directors, Sami Awad and Michael Beer, were part of an international convoy that brought solary panels and humanitarian aid to Cuba in March 2026. NVI is also supporting the flotilla planned for Gaza. Please read our now slightly outdated open letter to de-escalate the war on Iran elsewhere in our NVI blog.
Join Nonviolence International for a webinar on March 16, Monday, at 11:30am CT and 6:30pm Jerusalem time, entitled Solidarity in Action: Resisting Occupation in Palestine and Minnesota. This will be a conversation among Palestinian and Minnesota activists about nonviolent resistance to occupation and state violence. This webinar brings together organizers from two contexts where communities are confronting intensified state control, displacement and militarized enforcement: one new, in Minnesota, where federal immigration enforcement actions, characterized by a large deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents and have been resisted by community protests, grassroots defense and community building efforts have deeply impacted families and organizers, and veterans in the West Bank, where decades of military occupation shape everyday life and resistance, and have seen an increase of violence in the last months.
While there is no equivalency in duration or depth of violence and impunity, we have an opportunity to learn from people who have resisted occupation their entire lives and from those who may or may not have experienced it comparatively recently. Speakers will share their lived experiences, contrast strategies of resistance, shared learning and explore opportunities for solidarity and collective action. Through this exchange, we aim to center community agency, hope, and shared learning, and uplifting practices of resilience and organizing.
The webinar will be hosted by Mel Duncan, from Minnesota, co-founder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce and organizer of the Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine (UCPiP). And speakers include Amira Musallam, Head of Mission of UCPiP, Maddie Moon, Minnesota community organizer, and Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, Executive Director for UNIDOS MN.
Join us for this important conversation by registering here.
Goals:
- Share lessons learned from grassroots resistance in both contexts
- Build and invite compassion and mutual understanding
- Identify opportunities for solidarity and collaboration between movements fighting occupation, displacement, and state violence
Dear friends,
Nonviolence International warmly invites you to join us for two special evenings in Washington DC with Sami Awad, Palestinian activist, author, and NVI Co-Director.
For activists, Palestine has become a powerful lens for understanding injustice in the world. But today it reveals something deeper: the United States is not simply supporting Israel, it sits at the heart of a global system of empire. The same forces shaping domination abroad are also shaping power, repression, and inequality within the United States itself. This means the struggle is not just about changing policy. In these talks and based on his own journey, Sami invites us to expand our resistance, from a liberation struggle focused on one place to confronting the empire itself.
Event 1 - March 12, Thursday
From Occupation to Empire: Rethinking Resistance
All Souls Church Unitarian
Hosted by Souls 4 Palestine
6:30 – 8:30 PM (with Iftar observance)
1500 Harvard Street NW
RSVP here!
Event 2 - March 13, Friday
From Palestine to Empire: Reframing Resistance
Busboys & Poets
7:00 – 9:00 PM
450 K St NW, Mount Vernon Square
RSVP here!
These gatherings are an opportunity for community members, advocates, and anyone interested in nonviolent change to hear directly from a leading voice in Palestinian civil resistance and to explore pathways toward a more just and peaceful future.
We hope you can join us and help spread the word.
With appreciation,
Michael Beer, Co-Director
P.S. These are free events. If you want, please make a donation to Souls 4 Palestine and generously order food and drinks at Busboys and Poets to help them thrive.
Nonviolence International
https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/