Ali Abu Awwad is a prominent Palestinian peace activist from the West Bank. He is the founder of Taghyeer (Change), a Palestinian national movement promoting nonviolent resistance to the occupation and achieving reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. In 2016, Taghyeer organized a mass demonstration throughout the West Bank in support of a "nonviolent transformation" and to empower citizens to understand their own agency and to peacefully pressure politicians on both sides to social change and to find a more equitable solution to the conflict. Taqhyeer has also built up a supportive local community network throughout the West Bank.

Prior to becoming a peace activist and an ardent proponent of non-violence, Ali had served 4 years in prison as a teenager for throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers during the beginning of the First Intifada (1987-1993). While in prison Ali Abu was reading and learning about the nonviolent philosophy and strategies of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Mandela. 

In 2000 during the Second Intifada, Ali Abu was shot in the leg by an Israeli settler shortly after he lost his brother who had been shot by an Israeli soldier at an entrance checkpoint to their village. Thereafter Ali Abu and other family members joined the "Bereaved Families Forum" which convenes Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost close family members in the conflict’s violence to work toward reconciliation and resolution. At those forums, Ali deeply experienced for the first time that also "Jewish people have tears". 

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Ali Abu's story has been featured in the striking award-winning documentaries "Encounter Point" and "Forbidden Childhood".