Award winners from Palestine, Columbia and Germany

The Bremen Peace Award 2007 was received by people and organizations who put their every effort into reconciliation and non-violent co-existence.

Palestinian Bassam Aramin received the Prize in the Category “Unknown Peace Worker” for his reconciliation activities in the Middle East. Aramin is a former Fatah-Fighter, who was taken into captivity as he was 16. However, more than 7 years of captivity in Hebron did not evoke his animosity of Israel in any way. To the contrary. Today the 39-year-old belongs to the driving force of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Initiative “Combatants for Peace“. The murder of his 10-year-old daughter, shot by Israeli border guards, also did not shake his appeals to peace.  

The Columbian Organization Conciudadanía („Civil Rights for All“) was marked as the exemplary Initiative. It was founded 16 years ago by the committed private individuals who did not want to put up with violence of a civil war. Its brutality for a long time has been not only moulded military unions, but has also shaped private communications of people with each other. “Conciudadanía” is intended to struggle with this. The organization successfully elaborates ways to peaceful conflict resolution. It is also equally committed to taking care of traumatized victims of civil war and social reintegration of paramilitaries.

The economic and social scientist Wolfgang Kessler honours the Foundation by his public commitment to Peace, Justice and the Integrity of Creation. Kessler, born in 1953, has worked more than 20 years as a journalist and chief editor of the Christian Newspaper “Public Forum”. In his reports and books, such as well-known - “Worldquake. Ways out of the Globalisation Trap”, he is driven first of all by the idea that the economy should serve the people and not vice versa.  

The ex-mayor of Bremen and the patron of the Peace Award Hans Koschnick awarded the winners on November 16, 2007 in the Guildhall (Obere Rathaushalle). The international Bremen Peace Award is endowed with 15,000 Euro and since 2003 it has been awarded by the Threshold Foundation in three categories every two years.

The prize winners and 22 other nominated people and organizations are presented in the accompanying booklet: Bremen Peace Award 2007. “The courage to cross thresholds“. You can download the booklets here as a pdf-File or order them by requesting at stiftung@dieschwelle.de

In the magazine Public Forum (www.publik-forum.de) you may find an article about the prize winners. The link to the article is here.