Activists Talk
Activists Talk - No.3:
Nour Shehadeh, Coordinater of Active Nonviolence
Network in Tulkarem








As Nour Shehadeh, MEND Coordinator in Tulkarem,
accompanied me from the bus station to the MEND office, I was
overwhelmed by his evident popularity. Quite literally every
few seconds he would be greeted by friends.

Nour works as the Coordinator for the Northern West Bank, and
is a crucial member of MEND. His commitment to nonviolent
conflict resolution has made him a well-known figure in Tulkarem.

The city’s less well-known reputation belies its population of
nearly 55,000 people, amongst whom MEND locates one of its
Active Nonviolence Network centres. Indeed, the first regional
MEND office was built in Tulkarem, which now hosts between
500 and 600 volunteers, coordinated by Nour.

These include 20 young Menders, aged 14-17, who are
particularly active. They attend twice-weekly training, put on
performances of theatre and dabka – Palestinian folk dance –
and recently produced a film about street children, all of which
provide creative and nonviolent expressions for their
grievances.

Leadership training was underway when I arrived at the office –
‘What is a leader?’ the question on the table. Nour provides
these workshops to equip the leaders of the future with
nonviolent apparatus with which to challenge the status quo.
Recent training sessions have included a focus on Gandhi, and
a comparison of violent and nonviolent outcomes.

38 year-old Nour is not preaching from a position of
comfortable distance. He lost eight years of his life from 1987
when he found himself on an Israeli Government ‘wanted’ list.
He was on the run until his arrest in 1990, and served five years in
an Israeli prison. These unenviable credentials nevertheless
provide him with access that others would not have.

He spreads a message of nonviolent resistance to members of
the Al-Aqsa Brigade, the military wing of Fatah. He encourages
them to pay MEND a visit and consider nonviolent alternatives.

“I hope in the end this people will adopt nonviolence” he says,
“and that ultimately Palestinians and Israelis will make peace.”
He dreams of working with likeminded Israelis, “but,” he
continues, “violence has produced bloodshed, violence has
produced hatred between Israelis and Palestinians.” This hatred
is, for now, a formidable barrier.

So does this nonviolent resistance actually produce change?
“Yes!” he answers definitively. He raised the example of a
conference in March, attended by around 50 people, at which
nonviolent resistance was the subject of discussion. From this
they are due to launch a nonviolent demonstration against a
chemical factory near the 1967 border which produces
significant air pollution and is allegedly the cause of unusually
high incidences of cancer among local Palestinians.

On Nour’s desk sat a calendar upon which was written Gandhi’s
famous saying: “First, they ignore you. Next, they laugh at you.
Then they fight against you. And you win”.

In Tulkarem, it seems to me, the struggle to promote nonviolent
resistance has already reached the final stage. They are
winning. His popularity among locals is evidence of the
impression he has left on Tulkarem’s heart and mind. Nour
Shehadeh has walked a long path to this point, and he will
continue to walk it until this victory is complete.


This article is based on an interview conducted on March 7th
2007 by Takanobu Nakahara, International Public Relations
volunteer for MEND.
Author: Takanobu Nakahara
Edited by:: Mark Calder
Photo: Takanobu Nakahara