The Dorothy Day Award Goes to Mahmoud Khalil
by Stanley Heller, Promoting Enduring Peace
Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP) has given out the Gandhi Peace Award since 1960, recognizing laureates for decades of peace or environmental work. We have long thought of giving out another award, for a political prisoner, for someone in great danger, or someone involved in an important campaign. In 2025 we established the “Dorothy Day Award” for that purpose. Dorothy Day was a journalist, a Catholic reformer and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, and winner of the 1975 Gandhi Peace Award.
Our inaugural award was given to Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who was abducted from his home by ICE and sent 1,000 miles away to a Louisiana prison. Khalil was a leader in the protest movement at his university against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. He is a Palestinian himself, a green-card holder and legal resident of the U.S. He was born to a refugee family in Syria and made it to the U.S. through some eight security checks. The award this year comes with $1,000.
See https://bit.ly/4iroDkw about our April 14 press conference, which included remarks by Stanley Heller, Martha Hennessy (granddaughter of Dorothy Day), Mark Colville, and Shelly Altman.
Visit PEP’s website at pepeace.org for more information about our campaigns and actions and how you can be involved.