Husam Jubran

Trainer Husam Jubran (right) with participants in the February 2005 nonviolence training at the American Arab University of Jenin in the West Bank.Photo courtesy of Holy Land Trust

In May of 2004, the Muste Institute made a $1,000 grant to Holy Land Trust for a nonviolence training at the American Arab University of Jenin.This article about the training was written by trainer Husam Jubran.
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Holy Land Trust trainer Husam Jubran developed the training content and hosted the workshop.
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- Husam Jubran

Husam Jubran, of the Holy Land Trust, an organizer of the march, said:

After lunch, on that first day, we heard from three Palestinian peace activists: Sami Awad, the founder of the Holy Land Trust; Husam Jubran, coordinator of the trust's Peace and Reconciliation Program; and George, a parent who is a member of the Bereaved Parents Circle, an organization of Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost children in the conflict or in terrorist attacks which provides speakers who address schools, groups, visiting dignitaries, and even, occasionally, tourists.
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Sami and Husam spoke next.
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Husam was part of the first intifada, and ended up serving six months in an Israeli jail for throwing rocks at soldiers.He is in charge of the trust's Peace and Reconciliation Program, but this at first seemed strange, because he trumpeted destructive political rhetoric when he started to speak about Israel.But it's hard to blame him, because he is married to a woman who lives in East Jerusalem.He lives in Bethlehem.All of their appeals to live together have been denied.She has Jerusalem resident status, and he does not.If she gave up her residency status, she would lose her freedom of movement, as well as her job, as a teacher.Husam cannot travel to Jerusalem at all, at least not without special permission.

The four-day training was hosted in the Dar Saleh community building by HLT's lead trainer Husam Jubran with assistance from Awni Jubran and Ahmad Al-Azzeh.

Husam Jubran: Coordinator: Peace and Reconciliation programHusam seeks to encourage and bring awareness of war's devastating consequences by implementing projects in the area of conflict resolution and nonviolence.The main focus this period is on the Nonviolence Resistance and Protest campaign.

Husam graduated from Bethlehem University with BA Degree in Social Work and Psychology in 1995.In addition, he has a degree in Tour Guiding, which he received in 1997.Newly married, Husam has extensive experience in nonviolence training, which he was activity involved in during the first Palestinian Uprising in 1987.He continued working in nonviolence and conflict resolution as a volunteer for several years until he joined HLT.

- Husam JubranHoly Land Trust

Holy Land Trust and Panorama, two Palestinian organizations, took the lead in organizing the conferences in partnership with Quaker Service- Jerusalem (American Friends Service Committee).The conferences culminated two years of planning, training and activity around the issue of nonviolent resistance to the occupation.Participants focused their discussions on active nonviolent civil resistance strategies.According to conference organizers, this emphasis was crucial in building more support for nonviolence work within local communities.

"A year ago nonviolence was seen as submissive, as a way for Israel and the West to pacify the Palestinian people," said Husam Jubran, of Holy Land Trust."Now, much progress has been made and many see nonviolence as an active tool to resist and end the occupation," he said.

"This isn't what we agreed at the meeting of all the NGOs at the town hall earlier," seethes Husam Jubran, who heads the peace and reconciliation department at the Holy Land Trust, another Bethlehem-based, Christian-led organization dedicated to community work and non-violence."We came here to walk to Jerusalem.This," he adds bitterly, "is exactly why no Palestinians will bother coming next time."
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The Holy Land Trust's Husam Jubran, a Muslim, contends that "promoting non-violence in Palestine is harder than digging a tunnel from the North to the South Pole."Palestinians confuse non-violence with passivity and a sign of weakness, he says.He points to two main problems with the movement, the first being a lack of leadership."We don't have a Gandhi," he says."Every movement needs a leader."Nor, he adds, does the movement have a clear strategy, with well-defined tools or objectives.

"That's why I was so angry at the Bethlehem event," he explains.

The following was sent to me by one of my Palestinian compatriots, Husam Jibran, who works for Holy Land Trust.Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is occupied and being destroyed, along with dozens of its residents, men, women, and children.I stayed in the Paradise Hotel this summer with the other members of the August Campaign of international civil disobedience against Israel's occupation, and shopped at the pharmacy that is now destroyed.I know the owner of the pharmacy--he is a devout and gentle Christian who studied in Chicago for his pharmacological degree.He wept one day as I talked with him out of his frustration that what he called his "Jewish brothers" could not seem to accept Palestinians, and that they seemed to want to drive all Palestinians from their land.He did not want to hate them, and only wanted to live in peace with them.I wonder what he feels now, if he is still alive.