In 1983 Awad returned to Jerusalem and established the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence. Before the "intifada", Awad published papers and lectured on nonviolence as a technique for resisting the Israeli occupation. He wrote that nonviolence could be used as a means of resistance. The Centre also sponsored a number of nonviolent actions during the early months on the first "intifada". Among the tactics employed was the planting of olive trees on proposed Israeli settlements, asking people not to pay taxes and encouraging people to eat and drink Palestinian products. In the Middle East he is often referred to as the Arab Gandhi due to the similarity between his teachings of the power of nonviolence and those of Mahatma Gandhi in India during the British Raj. He believed these tactics could be used to resist the Israeli military occupation. He also drew upon the methodologies of Gene Sharp's trilogy, "The Politics of Non-Violence". Using this knowledge and his experience, Awad prepared his own "12-page blueprint for passive resistance in the territories," eventually published in the "Journal of Palestine Studies". He has translated into Arabic the teachings of Mohatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In 2015 he asserted that disciplined civil disobedience, involving the tearing up of Israeli ID cards, refusing to obey curfew orders, tearing fences down, and planting trees wherever settlements were being planned were among many non-violent options Palestinian should adopt, standing up for themselves with only their bodies and hearts in order to compel the occupier to "choose what kind of people they are". In 1998 Holy Land Trust (HLT) was established out of PCSN and The Journey of the Magi (JOM) by Sami Awad, Mubarak Awad's nephew.