Palestinian activist wins “Alternative Nobel Prize” for peaceful resistance against Israeli occupation

Palestinian activist Issa Amro was honoured on Thursday with the Right Livelihood Award, considered an alternative to the Nobel Prize, for his peaceful resistance against Israeli occupation through his organisation, Youth Against Settlements (YAS).

Issa Amro was recognised for his group’s “steadfast non-violent resistance to Israel's illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means.”

The 44-year-old activist was born in Hebron city of the West Bank, where thousands of Israeli settlers have established illegal homes and continue to harass indigenous Palestinians.

Around 1,000 Jewish settlers have infiltrated Hebron, a city with a population of 200,000 Palestinians.

The YAS organisation campaigns against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Amro has been detained multiple times by both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli military, according to the Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation.

"It's a miracle that I still exist," he said.

During the second intifada in 2006, Amro led a six-month civil disobedience campaign and successfully reopened his university.

“I graduated as an engineer and as an activist — it became part of my character,” he stated.

Following the 1967 war, Israel occupied the West Bank and has since settled over 700,000 Jews in the area. These settlements are considered illegal by the international community.

In a landmark ruling on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal and instructed Tel Aviv to abandon its occupation.

The court ordered Israel to halt further settlement activities, evacuate settlers, and fully compensate for the damage caused.