Nafez Assaily

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Nafez Assaily was born in 1956 in the former Jordanian territory of the West Bank, in Hebron. Though a Sufi Muslim, he received his early education at Christian schools in Jerusalem, and then began his tertiary studies at An-Najah National University in Nablus, where he majored in English. There he was impressed, if not wholly convinced, by writers on non-violence as varied as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Martin Buber. A significant moment in his awareness came when he heard a talk given by a Christian Arab Mubarak Awad, who subsequently founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem, which, after his expulsion from Israel in 1981 Awad now directs from abroad, a project on which Nafez collaborated. It was this talk which convinced Nafez in 1981 that the idea of non-violence was not merely a pipe dream. He has developed his own project of a mobile book-loan service called ‘Library on Wheels’ in Hebron in order to encourage reading among the youth of the town, and in particular the study of non-violence. He lost the use of sight in his right eye, following his participation in a protest rally at Al Aqsa mosque in October 1990 to protest the deaths of Palestinians killed there the day before. During the protest he suffered from fumes when a gas canister was fired into the crowd by Israeli police. He developed a severe eye infection, and he attributes his loss of sight to the effects of that particular gas.

Nafez lives on the northern outskirts of Hebron, close to the Jewish settlement of Harsina whose expansion has been at some cost to his family, since much of his own family’s land has been subject to a confiscation order in order to extend the development of Harsina which was established partially on his land. The original family property of some 8 acres, purchased by his father in 1959. According to a report by observers from the CPT much of the rest of his property was gradually lost over more than a decade by incremental fencing of an expanding perimeter, which destroyed fig, nut and olive trees and also a grape vineyard, until it now cuts into his own back yard. Nafez applied for an injunction from the Israeli authorities to stop this unauthorized appropriation of his agricultural land, so far to no avail^[1]^[2]

‘If nonviolence has such a bad reputation, how then can you convince people to keep supporting it? There are two facts to keep in mind about nonviolence in Palestine, says Assaily. The first is that since Israel was established in 1948, the Israelis have tried very hard to achieve peace and security through force. They haven't succeeded. On the other hand, the Palestinians tried for 43 years to achieve their goals by armed struggle. They also haven't succeeded. So both armed struggles failed to achieve their goals. Now is the time for nonviolence and Palestinians have to encourage the Israelis to turn to nonviolence by using it themselves. 'The other fact is that for Israelis, no one can give them peace,' says Assaily. '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 they can not give us peace. We must act on these two facts. More nonviolence, more effectiveness.’ ^[3]

Not withstanding the many difficulties of his life, and the loss of his family’s property, he continues to expound the philosophy of non-violence, and makes frequent appearances abroad as a lecturer.