In the first episode of June of the program “Nonviolence A Life Approach” implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies and FXB France within the project “Promoting a Culture of Nonviolence”, the discussion centred on creating opportunities for nonviolence’s culture, in order to face high levels of divorce in Palestine. In addition, stress the role of society’s components.

Lawyer and legal researcher Mr Bilal Al-Najjar said that the most important guarantor for the non-occurrence of divorce is to work on promoting the ideas and preconditions while establishing the marriage relationship. Since by this, we can have a successful marriage, especially in Palestinian society; which is based on marriage to form a family. This shows the importance of such a programme.

He clarified this point by talking about the marriage’s law and giving it special importance, as law authorized the period preceding it, the engagement period, besides, enriching the communication between couples. As a result, they can foresee if their marriage is going to succeed, before embarking on it. In addition, he noted that many members of society confuse with the engagement period and post-marriage phase, in the court, what is deemed a marriage in law and entails new rights and conditions. Moreover, its dissolution is considered a divorce that obligates the divorced to perform the duties that he owes for the other partner.

Furthermore, there are quite a number of married people who are not aware of their rights and this is what causes the loss of their own rights. And to make it even worse, the society traditions do not allow couples to talk together before the actual process of being married.

Al-Najjar pointed out that one of the most important reasons for divorce in the Palestinian society is the absence of dialogue between the spouses, and if the dialogue is absent, violence is present in all its various forms. Also, the solution for such a problem needs to begin from the early stages of the child’s raising by accustoming him/ her to using dialogue and respecting the other.

The societal activist, Hanen Rizk Al-Sammak, focused on the jurisprudence that NGOs undertake in educating generations regarding the basis of a successful marriage, sexual and reproductive culture. Besides, raising the sensitivity of different societal groups towards their rights, noting the importance of working to provide awareness to every single group for urban societies need to be educated, just like rural societies.

Al-Sammak added that the educational role must be distributed among all responsible elements for providing integrally so that it reaches the target groups in a specialized and effective manner; in order to ensure the best outcome. To achieve this, we have to use an optimal tool in spreading awareness if it is through local radio or social media or by holding workshops, plenary sessions, meetings and lectures, or by preparing a printed material. Which is determined by the target group and its nature. Noting that we can benefit from the experiences in other countries that necessitated the prospective of marriage to obtain a “marriage license” and apply it in our Palestinian society.  But it is conditional on the level of social awareness and the criteria for implementing the parties who are going to carry on this idea to present it in a manner, which is appropriate to the specificity and needs of society. Thus, we can reduce the instances of violence in Palestinian society.