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Mary King Awarded El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
On Saturday, October 3, at an award ceremony and dinner in her honor, Dr. Mary Elizabeth King received the 2009 El‑Hibri Peace Education Prize in recognition of her life-long devotion to the field of Peace Education and her outstanding work toward peace in the Middle East. The event took place at the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation in Washington, D.C., just a few blocks from the White House.
During the ceremony, Mr. Fuad El-Hibri, Chairman of the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation, and Dr. Mubarak Awad, President of Nonviolence International, presented Dr. King with a cash prize of $10,000. The annual prize is a joint effort between Nonviolence International and the El-Hibri family.
The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize was founded by Fuad and Nancy El-Hibri to honor a peace educator annually in order to bring awareness of and to promote the expansion of the field of Peace Education. The Prize focuses on individuals or organizations making valuable contributions to peace education and social justice in the Middle East.
Dr. King is Professor of Peace and Conflict studies at the United Nations-affiliated University for Peace, and distinguished scholar with the Center for Global Peace at American University in Washington, DC. She is also a Rothermere American Institute Fellow at the University of Oxford in Britain. Among Dr. King’s many publications, she is the author of the highly acclaimed A Quiet Revolution: The First Palestinian Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance, released in 2007. Her most recent book is The New York Times on Emerging Democracies in Eastern Europe (2009).
Dr. King has worked with President Jimmy Carter as a special advisor since the early 1970s, including working closely with him on bringing peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a presidential appointee in the Carter Administration, she had worldwide oversight for the Peace Corps and other U.S. volunteer service corps programs. In the U.S. civil rights movement, she worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
President Carter issued a statement congratulating Dr. King on receiving the Prize, citing her “enormous contributions to peace education, and particularly her devotion to peace” in the Middle East. Carter added that he and his wife were, “proud to be among the many whose lives were touched by her friendship and generous spirit.” He concluded that King is a “great asset to the global community and most deserving of the honor” of receiving the Peace Education Prize.
In her acceptance speech, Dr. King spoke of the growing prominence of the field of Peace Education and the positive action it generates. “No one that I meet in this field anywhere in the world solely wants to study peace,” she said. “Everyone is both practitioner and scholar. Peace studies not only dares to ask how we can build more peaceable societies, it seeks to alter the ‘real world.’” In addressing the Middle East, King stressed the importance of building civil society as a prerequisite for peace and the need to tell the truth, especially about Israel and Palestine, a central area of her research. “It is a lie to polarize people into ‘pro-Israeli’ or ‘pro-Palestinian.’ This is nonsense. We must all be thinking about changing the future,” she said.
“[Dr. King’s] devotion to adult education has changed the lives of thousands of Americans,” said Dr. Mubarak Awad, Chairperson of the Prize Organizing Committee.
The first laureate of the Prize in 2007, Professor Abdul Aziz Said, the Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace at American University, also commented. “Fuad and Nancy El-Hibri’s grace and generosity removes barriers and builds bridges for peacemakers,” he said. He also emphasized the importance of peace education in the Middle East especially, adding that “peace education is a never ending journey. We are all connected. It is our connection to one another that opens us to thought, words and deeds guided by love.”
Fuad El-Hibri pledged that he and the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation would continue to support the prize and its growth each year in an effort to highlight the importance of peace education and to support people who are working for a just, peaceful and healthy planet. For more information, visit http://elhibriprize.org.