Jerry White (activist) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jerry White is an American political activist and co-founder of Survivor Corps. He is a recognized leader of the historic International Campaign to Ban Landmines

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of non-governmental organizations working for a world free of anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their rights respected and can lead fulfilling lives.The coalition was formed in...

, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

, and co-founder of Survivor Corps (formerly Landmine Survivors Network

Landmine Survivors Network

Survivor Corps is a global network of survivors helping survivors to recover from war, rebuild their communities, and break cycles of violence. The organization currently operates programs in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, Croatia, El Salvador, Ethiopia,...

— the first international organization created by and for survivors to help victims of war rebuild their lives).

Background

In 1984, White lost his leg — and almost his life — in a landmine accident. According to an interview he gave to the Israeli Channel 10, he came to Israel to learn Hebrew as part of his studies of Judaism (though his roots are Irish Catholic). On one occasion he visited northern Israel with a few other American backpackers to follow the Biblical prophets' footsteps. When they reached the Banias

Banias

Banias is an archaeological site by the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights...

River in the Golan Heights, they decided to go off the beaten track and set up their camp on a nearby hill, where White stepped on a landmine. He said they later learned that the hill was Tel Azaziat

Tel Azaziat

Tel Azaziat is a hill in Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 330 m above sea level, 1.5 km east of moshav She'ar Yashuv, 1.5 km south east of kibbutz Dan and 2 km west of Tel Faher. The basalt hill was a Syrian military outpost built within the DMZ, used to shell the Israeli villages...

, a former battlefield in which many minefields had been laid during the 1960s. White said he was hospitalized in the Sheba Medical Center

Sheba Medical Center

The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer , also Tel HaShomer Hospital, is the largest hospital in Israel.-Overview:The hospital was named after Chaim Sheba, the founding director. It was established in 1948 as the country's first military hospital to treat casualties of Israel's War of...

at Tel HaShomer

Tel HaShomer

Tel HaShomer is a district in Gush Dan in central Israel. It is located east of Ramat Gan, and is bordered to the north by Kiryat Ono, to the east by Yehud, and to the south by Or Yehuda...

, and despite having the possibility to receive good medical treatment in the United States, he decided to stay at Tel HaShomer until he was fully recovered and rehabilitated, because he was impressed with the center's methods of rehabilitating people with serious limb injuries.

Following this incident, White became a co-founder of Survivor Corps (together with Ken Rutherford). He led efforts to draft and enact human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

and humanitarian laws that promote and protect the rights of 650 million people with disabilities.

White arranged for, and escorted, Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...

, on her last humanitarian mission, to Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

, and then spearheaded efforts to promote a mine-free Middle East with King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan.

White has appeared and published extensively in the media; testified before the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

and the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

; and received several awards in recognition of his humanitarian and human rights leadership, including: the first International UNA Humanitarian Prize from Sir Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

and Heather Mills; the 2001 Paul G. Hearne/American Association of People with Disabilities Leadership Award; the 2000 Mohammed Amin

Mohammed Amin

Mohammed Amin is a politician from the Communist Party of India , the largest communist party in India. He is presently a Member of the Parliament of India representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament...

Humanitarian Award; Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

's 2000 William Rogers Alumni Award; the Center for International Rehabilitation's Leadership Award in 1999; and the 1997 Nobel Prize for Peace awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

I Will Not Be Broken

In May 2008, he published his book, I Will Not Be Broken: 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis, containing a detailed account of his injury, his recovery and his work on the international campaign to ban landmines culminating in the founding of Landmine Survivors Network, later renamed Survivor Corps. The book has since been re-issued in paperback as Getting Up When Life Knocks You Down: 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis.

Personal

Jerry White used to live in Maryland with his wife Kelly and four children. He is presently living in the Mediterranean island of Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a master’s of business administration from University of Michigan, and an honorary doctorate from Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Mount Sinai School of Medicine is an American medical school in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, currently ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the United States. It was chartered by Mount Sinai Hospital in 1963....

. In 2005 White delivered the commencement speech

Commencement speech

A commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions. The "commencement" is a ceremony in which degrees or diplomas are conferred upon graduating students...

at the Ross School of Business

Ross School of Business

The Stephen M. Ross School of Business is the business school of the University of Michigan. Numerous publications have ranked the Ross School of Business' Bachelor of Business Administration , Master of Business Administration and Executive Education programs among the top in the country and the...

, University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

, where he had recently been awarded an MBA from the Ross School of Business

Ross School of Business

. In May 2010 White delievered the commencement address at the Mendoza Graduate School of Business, University of Notre Dame.

Before he began the LSN, White had been an activist campaigning against weapons of mass destruction

Weapons of mass destruction

A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...

and had been interviewed or published in newspapers and journals such as The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

and The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...

. He has been Assistant Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control

Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control

The Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control is a non-profit, non-partisan organization established to curb the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction through research and advocacy...

, an editor for the award-winning publication Risk Report and in the late 1990s served on the Board of Directors of the Amputee Coalition of America

Amputee Coalition of America

The Amputee Coalition of America is a nonprofit organization based in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America. ACA's mission is to reach out to people with limb loss and empower them through education, support and advocacy.-Outreach programs:...

. He has testified before the United Nations

United Nations

and the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

External links

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