This year's Anna Lindh Memorial Fund Prize has been awarded to Palestinian Quaker Jean Zaru. Six members of Sweden Yearly Meeting attended the prize-giving ceremony in Stockholm on 10 June. On introducing Jean Zaru, the former archbishop of Sweden, KG Hammar, referred to Jean’s life and steadfast work for peace through nonviolent means in Palestine and her home town of Ramallah as being like an olive tree that refused to be uprooted because it belonged in that soil and would bear fruit there. In her thank-you speech, Jean stressed the importance of never giving up, since that in effect meant giving in. In his rounding off address to Jean, Jan Eliasson said that security was not to be found behind walls but through and among neighbours. In this context he felt that the important triad of peace – development - human rights had been and continues to form the cornerstone of Jean’s work.
The motivation for the 2010 prize is as follows: ‘In a part of the world that is often painted in different shades of violence, Jean Zaru is a beacon of hope. She is an advocate for dialogue between religions and is, as a lone female church leader in the Middle East, a role model for women’s leadership. During her entire life, Jean Zaru has chosen non-violence to resist the oppression under which she lives. Non-violence because it exposes and challenges the structural violence on all levels. Non-violence because it makes the oppressors realize that they, too, are victims of the violence they impart. Non-violence because Jean Zaru believes in the human being, the entire human being’ (see http://www.annalindhsminnesfond.se/in_english/template.asp?contentID=4&sub_contentID=11).

The Anna Lindh Memorial Fund primarily supports women and young people who work in the spirit of Anna Lindh (the former foreign minister who was murdered in Sweden on September 11 2003). They are people, who in their daily lives have the courage to fight indifference, prejudice, oppression and injustices in order to promote a good life for all people in an environment marked by respect for human rights.