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Monte Asbury's blog

Video: Nobel Peace Prize Winner shot by Israeli army

with 3 comments

Mairead Corrigan McGuire received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her heroic work in Northern Ireland, where peace after terror became a reality. She recently spoke in the West Bank. Here’s an excerpt from her speech (read it all here.):

“From where do I get my hope? From the people of this place, and those Israeli/Palestinian peace activists who believe passionately that given justice and equality for all its citizens, peace and human security is possible in this holy land.“

She’s participating in a non-violent protest after speaking when soldiers of the Israeli army open fire. McGuire is felled by a rubber-coated steel bullet. Undeterred, she presses the case for human rights under a tree while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. (More of the story here.)

May we be so brave.

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Written by Monte

April 27, 2007 at 3:38 pm

Posted in Iran, Iraq, Islam, Politics, Poverty, Religion, Social change, Terrorism, Women

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3 Responses

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  1. Thanks for the inclusion, Ann! What if our understanding of heroism was so transformed that the phrase peace hero was as common as war hero? What if we were to “go off to peace” as readily as we “go off to war”? What if we had a DOP that spent as much as our DOD? So much hasn’t been tried yet!

    And thank you, Ashok, for asking the questions that must be asked over and over until the US and Israel have to face them. I feel, I think, a rising insistence in the US at the grassroots level that human rights violations may not be excused. It hasn’t gained much sway in political circles yet, but I think it will.

    Monte

    April 28, 2007 at 9:41 am

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  2. An inspiration. Thank you for drawing attention to this beautiful women’s courage and commitment to peaceful resolution to injustice. I was very moved by her words in the video. In the BeliefNet link too, she writes with much hope:

    I hope you will take inspiration from the peace process in Northern Ireland. We too, in our most recent history, have been in dark places where it seemed injustice and its child of violence was in danger of destroying us. In l976 we were on the brink of civil war, and the cycle of violence seemed impossible to break. Sadly a tragedy happened with the death of my sister Ann’s three young children (Joanne, John, and Andrew) in a violent clash between the Irish Republic Army and British Army. Out of this tragedy, there arose a massive grassroots peace movement, demanding an end to violence, and offering nonviolence as a way forward for the Northern Irish people.

    Many other social movements, and efforts by the civil community, took place to resist violence and demand justice and peace. It was a spontaneous people’s movement. Ordinary people from all walks of life joining in solidarity saying ‘enough is enough’ there is another way of nonviolence to solve our problems. We took our inspiration from Jesus/Gandhi/King arguing that nonviolence is not weak; it is active, powerful, because it comes from the soul and it therefore has the power of truth, and is simply the right thing to do. We refused to carry arms and refused armed protection. Our nonviolence was risky and dangerous, we received death threats from all sides, our property destroyed, were verbally and physically attacked, but we had the joy of witnessing in the first six months of the movement, a 70 percent decrease in the rate of violence, and the beginning of peace.

    It was a long, difficult, and dangerous path; often we though things were so bad peace would never come. It took a long time for the message of nonviolence to be heard, but it was finally, and ended up in all inclusive dialogue when the British/Dublin Governments spoke to their enemies through representatives of the paramilitary groups, and all the Political parties. This all inclusive dialogue, eventually lead in l998 to the Good Friday Agreement, then to the historic meeting in March 2007 of Dr. Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party) and Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) sitting at the same table and agreeing to share power in Northern Ireland on 8th May, 2007, when there will be a devolved Government in Northern Ireland, a Power Sharing executive and an Assembly. Truly miracles do happen, and should give hope to others!

    peoplesgeography

    April 28, 2007 at 1:19 am

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  3. This is what we can expect from these occupation-terrorist.
    Ask them and they will give you reason for everything.
    The Beit hanoun incident was just a “technical error” , the murdering of a school going 14 year old girl was “due to fear of security” , killing of 500 kids in Lebanon and roasting them with cluster bomb was ” security measure” , snatching away of others land, preventing patients from visiting hospitals , denying basic human rights are ” guidance from religious book” which give them as a “choosen people” license to loot, kill, massacre , and become demonic .
    They had even brutally killed Rachel and members of Christian peace maker team, and endless lists of people.

    I just want to ask them one question that everytime they say , that they have been sanctioned as a state in 1948 by UN; then why dont they make walls in their own areas, why are thye keen on snatching someone’s else land?

    ashok

    April 27, 2007 at 9:49 pm

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