Non-Violence, Free Speech and Nuclear War

Abstract

In late 1983, as demonstrations against the Lebanon war were coming to an end, a well-built Palestinian started to attract attention as he toured the West Bank on his motorcycle, preaching the gospel of non-violence. Mubarak Awad was born to an orthodox Christian family of the Musrara quarter of Jerusalem. The family home was located in what became no man’s land in 1948. Awad’s father was caught in the cross-fire when the war broke out and, to this day, Awad does not know whether his father died from a bullet fired from the gun of an Arab or a Jew. On his father’s death, Awad was taken to the orphanage founded by Katy Antonious, wife of the Palestinian historian George Antonious, where he spent his early, formative years. Katy Antonious had a strong influence on him, teaching him that: ‘people are people and there is no reason to fear them or their rank.’¹