Activist Rachel Corrie’s parents accept award on daughter’s behalf
The parents of peace activist Rachel Corrie accepted the 2012 LennonOno Grant for Peace by Yoko Ono on behalf of their daughter in Iceland.
At a ceremony in New York last month, three performers with the Russian band Pussy Riot, who remain imprisoned for their stand for freedom of speech and expression, also received the LennonOno award.
Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, said: “Rachel would be greatly surprised and humbled by this recognition. Her hope would be that it could somehow contribute to bringing people together to work passionately for justice, and to do so with the utmost respect for the rights and lives of all human beings”.
In the biennial award’s official announcement, IMAGINE PEACE commemorates the work of the Rachel Corrie Foundation to which the monetary grant prize has been given.
Craig Corrie’s Rachel’s father, said: “We are grateful that Ms. Ono has chosen to recognise our daughter in such a wonderful way. Rachel must be smiling somewhere to imagine her memory linked in any way with that of John Lennon. Perhaps they smile together”.
Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist and human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer on March 16, 2003, as she stood non-violently to prevent a Palestinian home from being demolished in Rafah, Gaza.
In August this year, Cindy and Craig lost a seven year court case in Israel seeking for the state of Israel to be held responsible for their daughter’s death.
