النهار

BEIRUT: In the heat of the Lebanese revolution, whether or not to adopt tactics of nonviolent resistance has been sparking controversy within protesters, many of whom, “mistakenly correlate nonviolence with weakness,” as Ogarit Younan believes.

In pursuit of expanding on the topic of nonviolent resistance, TEDxHamraSalon hosted an evening of deep-dive discussions at The Olive Grove with guest speaker Ogarit Younan, researcher, writer, and international trainer and advocate of nonviolent resistance worldwide.

Younan is also the founder of the Academic University for Nonviolence and Human Rights (AUNOHR); INSERT INTO articles (articleId, timestamp, date, title, teaser, slug, status, primaryCategory, description, authorId, sourceId, url, lastUpdate, hasImage, contents, summary) VALUES which is the first of its kind in Lebanon and the Arab region.

At the Sunday event which commenced with an opening word by Sara Sibai, TEDx ambassador and licensee and curator of TEDxHamraSalon, attendees were shown a TED talk in which Filmmaker Julia Bacha shares stories of effective nonviolent resistance, focusing on the crucial leadership role played by women in their waging.

Afterward, guest speaker Younan unraveled the world of nonviolent resistance first by exemplifying powerful strategies from around the world, such as the Indian Independence Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, and the American Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King and then relating them to the local situation.

“Revolutions are often associated with violence,” Younan said, “and supporters of violent resistance throughout uprisings tend to underestimate the power of the non-violent approach to resistance, even when they are not fully familiar of its efficacy.”

She added that nonviolent revolutions, if not generating resistance, are invalid. Similarly, she explained, nonviolent revolutions cannot succeed without patient determination, proper strategizing and directing focus on specific objectives.

In an intimate environment, the event swarmed with full and dynamic intellectual conversation which speculated the validity of nonviolent resistance in the context of the ongoing Lebanese revolution.

“In Lebanon, because of the sectarianism, protesters need to be extra creative with their ways since complete unification is difficult to achieve,” Younan said. “However, no protestor has the right to execute a violent resistance which may hurt another individual who may not want to be involved with violence in the first place.”

Through the whole of her speech, Younan emphasized on the importance of being strategically planned. If the opponent is throwing bombs, peacefully standing under the bomb is not smartness, but suicide, she said.

In this case, she added, even if we want to respond with violence, we cannot do so unless strategically planned, and that “studying the case is always essential.”

As an attendee who requested anonymity told Annahar, “the process of learning has to continue, and us as Lebanese, who have been neglecting their role in Lebanon for too long, need to realize we are at the beginning of a process which takes years to materialize.”

Another attendee Jad Safwan, a research coordinator at the Samir Kassir Foundation, told Annahar that the event “got him thinking” and unveiled methods and implications of resistance he did not previously take into consideration, such as how our actions throughout revolutions affect others.

TEDxHamraSalon is a local forum of monthly salons that aim to connect people both to ideas and to each other in an intimate environment, with the hopes of inspiring people to change their lives, their futures and ultimately their world.