Nafez Assaily (), born in 1956 in the West Bank, in the Old City of Jerusalem grew up in Hebron, and is a sociologist and Palestinian peace activist. As early as 1997 he was defined as a Palestinian who had argued for a comprehensive strategy of non-violence through 43 years of the failure to achieve anything by armed struggle. Life and activism Though a Sufi Muslim, he received his early education at Christian schools in Jerusalem – the first a Roman Catholic primary school, the other a Coptic Orthodox secondary school, and went on then began his tertiary studies at An-Najah National University in Nablus, where he majored in English and sociology. His background thus afforded him a familiarity with three distinct religious traditions each of which would contribute to his non-violent philosophy. His views on non-violence were shaped by Islamic mysticism, by Buddhism, and Gandhi, the 1982 film. Encounter with Awad He obtained a master's degree in peace studies and conflict resolution. A significant moment in his awareness came when he, a teacher of English in Jerusalem at the time, heard a talk in 1983 given by Mubarak Awad, a Christian Palestinian, and began to work under him. It was this talk which convinced Nafez that the idea of non-violence was not merely a pipe dream. Lucy Nusseibeh had invited Awad to talk at Birzeit University and, at the time, such talk was dangerous. According to her husband, the philosopher Sari Nusseibeh "At the time, to put forward the image of yourself as a non-violent person was not kosher in the Palestinian community. You had to put yourself forward as a guy with a gun, with ten guns hanging around your waist and shoulders, or keep silent." Awad had founded the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence (PCSN). When Awad was under threat of deportation he had to cancel his month-long appointment to the Gamaliel Chair at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Lutheran Campus ministry, and Assaily took his place, received a standing ovation from representatives from 51 church representatives in Milwaukee presbytery, and delivering addresses on 40 occasions. In June 1988, Awad was expelled from Israel, and Nafez became the center's acting director. Broader issues As director of PCSN, Assaily pressed Israel to enable family reunifications among Palestinians who were left separated from each other in 1967. Over a 23-year period, according to a Red Cross estimate, Israel had