Sami Awad is an internationally acclaimed speaker and executive director of Holy Land Trust.
Holy Land Trust seeks to address the root causes of the Israeli occupation and to build a future founded on the principles of justice, equality nonviolence and peaceful coexistence.
Their inspirational approach is built upon creating new models of leadership, on promoting non-violent strategies and on bringing together Palestinian communities and their emerging young leaders.
“We can’t wait for someone to come and liberate us or give us a state,” says Sami; “we need to fight to achieve such things. The method we use is nonviolence, because nonviolence is not only a means of resistance, but of individual empowerment and thus the empowerment of society to take initiative.”
Sami Awad is a descendent of a Palestinian refugee family that was expelled from its home in Jerusalem in 1948. He grew up in Bethlehem under the Israeli military occupation and from a young age took part in nonviolent activism to end the occupation. He holds a BA degree in Political Science and a Masters in Peace and Conflict Resolution.