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Arab Non-Violence University Fights for Peace
The Arab University for Non-Violence (AUNV) has begun a new course, in an effort to “institutionalize the culture of non-violence in Lebanon and the region.” “I believe in non-violence. For me it’s a way of living” says Ziad Izzat, a Palestinian physics teacher from Ramallah and now a student at AUNV.
“It’s a philosophy, it’s a tool. I want to practice it on the ground as I believe it can solve many problems. In Palestine … it is a practical way to help us and our goal to have freedom from occupation.
“This university is an old dream,” says Dr Ogarit Younan, a co-founder of AUNV. She echoes Izzat’s belief that “it is not a project but a way of life. Our objective is change.”
“It is not just academic, we want to create political and social change. At the individual level and at the political and official level … our goal is to make changes for justice, for peace and for non-sectarianism.”
The university has been set up in coordination with the Lebanese Association of Civil Rights (LACR) and is funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut and IKV Pax Christi in the Netherlands. The funding includes scholarships for this year’s students.
Beginning next year, students will be expected to pay fees of around $2,700, although this figure will depend on the type of course undertaken.
There are 12 specialized courses which include “the culture of non-violence,” “positive conflicts management” and “civil campaigns and methodology of lobby.”
The courses are designed to teach students how to achieve their political and social goals without resorting to violence. The university hopes the students will go back to their communities across the Middle East and spread their teachings.
Another student at AUNV is Al-Israa Yasser, an Iraqi journalist and human rights worker from Baghdad. She was invited to join the university by the LACR.
One of the main issues she faces in her work for non-violence in Iraq, other than the security situation which prevented her from working for two years until 2007, is that people are always asking “Who is behind this?”
“They are worried about the intentions behind the concept of non-violence. If the Americans were behind the concept they wouldn’t accept it. They would think it is the strategy of the occupier.”
Yasser believes that now that an Arabic university is spreading these concepts she will be able to develop trust at the grassroots level.
One of the ideas the university wants to overcome is that violence is a more effective way to solve problems than non-violence. Izzat acknowledges that “it is very easy to resort to violence and it is very hard to go through non-violence.
It requires a lot of effort, but we have been trying for more than 60 years to get our freedom through violence and we have been failing up to now.
“Now we need to use non-violence as I can assure you, if we use our knowledge and our argument we can reach our goals peacefully.”
“We can get our rights through this peaceful way of life. This way you can save your people from violence, and also you can save the others at the same time, even if they are your enemies,” Younan adds.
“Violence just serves to destroy everything and creates new problems. In non-violence the means and the goals are the same.”
Matthew Wright
The Daily Star