Episode
#76 John Dear with Mel Duncan, co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce about his work all over the world, more recently in Palestine and St. Paul, MN: "Organized nonviolence led to ICE leaving Minneapolis."
- Podcast
- The Nonviolent Jesus
- Published
- Jun 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2406
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://rss.com/podcasts/the-nonviolent-jesus-podcast/2904306
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-nonviolent-jesus-7144839/episodes/76-john-dear-with-mel-duncan-co-founder-of-nonviolent-peaceforce-about-his-work-all-over-the-world-more-recently-in-palestine-and-st-paul-mn-organized-nonviolence-led-to-ice-leaving-minneapolis/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-nonviolent-jesus-7144839/76-john-dear-with-mel-duncan-co-founder-of-nonviolent-peaceforce-about-his-work-all-over-the-world-more-recently-in-palestine-and-st-paul-mn-organized-nonviolence-led-to-ice-leaving-minneapolis.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Dear friends, This week I speak with one of the great peacemakers of our times, my friend Mel Duncan about unarmed civilian protectors and the Nonviolent Peaceforce that has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. Mel has been a leader in developing the practice of unarmed civilian protection for over two decades: He started providing nonviolent protective presence along Nicaragua’s northern border in 1984 during the Contra war. In 2002 along with David Hartsough and Mary Lou Ott he co-founded Nonviolent Peaceforce nonviolentpeaceforce.org Nonviolent Peaceforce’s “nonviolent civilian protectors” provide direct protection to civilians caught in violent conflict and work with local groups to prevent further violence and sustain peace in a variety of conflict areas including South Sudan, Ukraine, the Philippines and the United States. Mel has represented Nonviolent Peaceforce at the United Nations where the group has been granted Consultative Status. Recent UN global reviews as well as Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions have cited and recommended unarmed civilian protection. The American Friends Service Committee nominated Nonviolent Peaceforce for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2018 Nonviolent Peaceforce received the Luxembourg Peace Prize. Since retiring in 2023, Mel has helped organize a team of unarmed civilian protectors who are now working in Palestine as “Unarmed Civilian Protection.” He worked there for six months in 2025. For the past few months during the ICE occupation, he has been providing protective presence in St. Paul where he lives. When I asked about Palestine, he said, “The violence has intensified greatly since the attacks on Iran and Lebanon. It's provided a cover for Israelis to brutally attack Palestinian civilians. What can…