The Nonviolence as a strategy in the Arab World

For more than 400 years, specifically from 1517 to 1917, the Middle East has been a unified region where the communities throve and the family relationships were gratefully positive. But, from 1917 the Middle East meets a moment of stress and conflict, which translates into three Arab-Israeli wars (1948, 1967 y 1973), clashes between Israel and Lebanon (1978, 1982, 1993, 1996) and two Palestinian Intifadas (1987 y 2000). Likewise, from the 80s a hard conflict between Iraq and Iran, both the First and Second Persian Gulf Wars, as well as the last Iraq Occupation by the United States of America take place. All those armed conflicts have meant a loss of 1,800,000 human lives[1].  

Apart from the high number of human lives’ loss, the conflict in the Middle East is potentiating extremely high environmental, economics, politics and social costs. The political leaders are showing a defensive effort which is boosted by the economic benefit of hundreds of arms companies that is mortgaging the future of millions of young people and is plunging the region into a cycle of unprecedented violence. The nuclear race could become the last chapter of this story of violence, since a nuclear Apocalypses is capable of taking 50 millions of lives[2].

Before this situation, comes the need of the peace-building in the Arab World. Along with many activities such as peace culture promotion or advocacy actions to fight against small arms, many nonviolent movements and organizations are working towards this aim. Until now, the organizations have worked hard in their countries and got a lot of experience. However, there is little a connection among actors of the same field in the whole Arab World.

Following this aim, last December the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th, NOVA organized together with the NNAC (Nonviolence Network in the Arab Countries) and the Lebanese organization Permanent Peace Movement (PPM) the Third Sessions on Nonviolence in the Arab World. Under the subtitle: “The role of civil society in the process of peaceful change in the region”, 30 representatives of nonviolent movements and organizations from 11 Arab countries (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait) met in the Lebanese Mountains in Broumana in order to strengthen the conflict transformation strategies through the nonviolence.

The elements of relationship between the Arab societies and the struggles for social and political transformation were the subjects that opened the Sessions. The nonviolent leaders agreed on the fact that the word peace is a stigmatized one. Societies in the region perceived with suspicion and distrust the peace process being proposed because of the broken promises over the past decades. The heights of the problem are the peace processes between Palestine and Israel. Taking an example, the Oslo Peace Processes in 1993, instead of solving the problem, did legitimize the Occupation and exempted Israel from the responsibility as the occupying country. Since then, the international community has taken the responsibility for maintaining the health and education services of the Palestinians, among others. Last year took place the last peace overture which showed that the Israeli leaders are not for the peace as they, not only dismantled the settlements, but imposed their fast building. In 1993, there were 269,200 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; four years later, in 2007, the amount of settlers grew up to 483,453.

The nonviolent movements that took part of the Beirut Sessions agreed on the idea that in order to build up a society peacefully, nonviolent ways are needed. Because of the many wars that have plagued the region, there is a structural violence that pervades all sectors of society (family, school, work) and that causes people to resolve conflicts with violence. To do this, it was agreed that one of the first goals of the network is the promotion of culture of peace through the sharing of resources, trainers and experiences.

From a political standpoint, it was also discussed the importance of supporting reconciliation processes in those countries that had suffered both inter-ethnic wars and/or sectarian violence between religious communities. For it was considered essential to strengthen the elements that connect to the warring communities and reduce the factors that divide such as compensation and integration of victims of violence, reducing the speeches of fundamentalist religious leaders or the abolition of the death penalty as a mechanism for justice.

During the conference, it was obvious that the priority for organizations were the in-fighting in each country but  they also made clear the need to exchange experiences in the framework of the NNAC and above all, they crystallized the need for creating a regional strategy working regional problems as well as the proliferation of small arms (in Yemen, e.g., there are 9 million small arms) and the nuclear threat that culminates in an extensive economic and political investment to produce weapons and defend oneself against them, while reducing the health and / or educational spending.

After 3 days of intensive work, nonviolent leaders of the 11 Arab countries in the region agreed to participate in the Nonviolent Network in the Arab Countries, strengthen its ties and support the gradual development of a nonviolent regional strategy. For now, the immediate step of NNAC is to continue being a space for sharing experiences and resources to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence, as a tool for conflict transformation. The purpose is to build peaceful societies based on the concept of citizenship as part of coexistence[3].

Felip Daza

[1] Strategic Foresight Group of IEMED, (2010), El Coste del Conflicto de Oriente Medio, IEMED, Barcelona, pag. 43

[2] Strategic Foresight Group of IEMED, idem.

[3] KYMLICKA, N., (2000), Citinzenship in Diverse Societies, University Press, Oxford