For the first time Arab activists and trainers of nonviolence meet to
discuss establishing a network of Arab Network for Nonviolence.
Trainers and activists from five Arab countries, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon met in Amman-Jordan on October 29 to November 4 to discuss the formation of the network and strategies of cooperation among the Arab trainers and activists.
The seminar was organized by NOVA, a Spanish organization which calls for social change. NOVA acted based on a call by two Iraqi organizations during the social forum in Porto Alegre in Brazil, in 2005.
The aim is to promote civil society as a peace-making factor in the region, through the identification and training of leaders in the nonviolent transformation of conflicts, the strengthening of non-violent networks and the support for the Campaign for a force of civil intervention in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The network, if formed, will aim at trying to find support for the member organizations and to share training material and experience in this field.
The focus of the discussion was Palestine and Iraq, for their great need for nonviolent struggle.
The participants also discussed some strategies for more proactive nonviolent resistance in Palestine.
