The Cork Mother Jones Committee wishes to announce that the recipients of the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones Award are the People of Palestine.

The award will be presented to Ms Zeina Alazzeh of the Embassy of the State of Palestine at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane on Friday evening 26^th July after the “Stories of Palestine” meeting which commences at 7pm.

Ms Alazzeh, the research and policy officer at the Palestinian Embassy, has been nominated by the Ambassador of Palestine to Ireland Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid to accept this award which honours the People of Palestine.

James Nolan spokesperson for the Cork Mother Jones Committee stated

“The Cork Mother Jones Committee is pleased to present the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones Award  to the People of Palestine. We remain honoured by the decision of Ambassador Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid to accept this award on behalf of the State of Palestine.

Although in practical terms an award such as this remains almost a trivial offering, we believe it represents a symbolic and heartfelt gesture of support by many Cork people to an entire population facing genocide.

in that we are recording the fact that human beings everywhere should bear witness to the sufferings of Palestinians. Along with the many thousands of people who have marched through Cork City each week and across Ireland since October 2023, we wish to also express our support for the People of Palestine by conferring on them the Spirit of Mother Jones Award.”    

Accepting the Spirit of Mother Jones Award, the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, wrote in her letter to the Cork Mother Jones Committee dated 11^th July;

“I am so pleased to accept this award which honours the People of Palestine. During this difficult time and while our people in Palestine are experiencing the highest form of misery and catastrophe, we find a glimmer of hope through the Irish people’s support and solidarity. It is heart-warming that there are still nations that stand up for basic human rights, but sadly this is not the case everywhere.

Mary Harris was a brave mother like thousands of Palestinian mothers who lost their children. It is the loss of a mother’s child, and how she could hold back her grief and despair to create a better life. Her commitment to standing up against injustice holds great values that are reflected in this award and we are honoured to be credited with it”

Award citation from the Cork Mother Jones Committee.

The Cork Mother Jones Committee presents the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones Award to the People of Palestine:

• For their tenacity in surviving the oppression, colonisation and ongoing nightmare of living in an open air prison for the two million people in GAZA since the Israeli blockade began in 2007.
• For their resilience to achieve self-determination in an independent State of Palestine and for their efforts to achieve freedom to live as normal human beings
• For their determination to highlight the genocide and opposition to plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza
• For their strength and courage to expose the humiliation being imposed and for calling world attention to prevent the collective punishment being inflicted on the entire population. 
• For also exposing the attempts at dehumanisation and the starvation of Gaza by the Israeli government.
• For their ongoing efforts to draw attention to the failure of large sections of the International community to  prevent or condemn this daily massacre taking place in Gaza which has been condemned by the United Nations International Court of Justice.  

Previous recipients of the Spirit of Mother Jones Award have included Antoinette Keegan, Mary Manning, Louise O’Keeffe, Fr Peter McVerry, Don O’Leary, Mick Lynch, Gareth Peirce, Ann O’Gorman, Maureen Considine and Catherine Coffey O’Brien, Ken Fleming, Dave Hopper and Margaret Aspinall.