Abstract

For nearly a century the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been constituted by violence. There have, however, been periods of nonviolent action, the most significant being the First Intifada of the late 1980s. The primary intellectual influence behind the Intifada's nonviolent movement was Palestinian Christian Mubarak Awad, sometimes referred to as "the Gandhi of Palestine". This title is not without merit. In many ways, Awad resembles Gandhi in his personal nonviolent philosophy. However, in both his actions and writings during the Intifada, Awad a pragmatic approach to nonviolence, more reminiscent of pragmatic nonviolence scholar Gene Sharp that principled nonviolence leader Mahatma Gandhi. In this paper, I aargue that Awad's synthesis of Gandhi and Sharp's brands of nonviolence, first, demonstrates the principled and pragmatic approaches can be compatible in the field of nonviolent sturggle, and second, that contextual factors in the Occupied Territories may require a synthesis like Awad's in order for nonviolence to work in Palestine.