BICOM

Ali Abu Awwad is a leading Palestinian activist and the founder of Roots – an Israeli-Palestinian project in the West Bank that works for co-existence by changing peoples’ narratives and by transforming the relationship between the two peoples. He sat with Fathom deputy editor and BICOM Director of Research Calev Ben-Dor to discuss imprisonment, bereavement, and the missing Palestinian non-violent movement. Also see the interview in Fathom with Shaul Judelman, Abu Awwad’s Israeli partner in Roots.

Calev Ben-Dor: What events have shaped you and your opinions?

Ali Abu Awwad: I come from a refugee family. In 1948 my family were thrown out of their village, Qubeiba, in what is now known as Lachish. I grew up with this heavy painful narrative – that Israelis came to my land, built a state and have occupied since 1967. I felt that my life, and even my physical movement were totally controlled by the other, and that I had no resources with which to lead a normal life or to achieve my dreams of travelling and studying.

It made me angry and deeply confused: torn between my humanity which didn’t want to hurt anyone and my anger at seeing my mother arrested and humiliated by the army (she was one of the leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party). If people think that we learn how to hate in schools they are mistaken. Whoever lives here doesn’t need anyone to teach them how to hate. Our hate is a product of our conditions.

Read the full interview in Fathom.