Ilka Schröder, a 21-year old activist in Germany's Green party at the time of her election to the European Parliament in 1999, has distinguished herself during the past four years as an ardent pacifist. While her advocacy of nonviolence has at times been controversial (she resigned from the Green party after it expressed support for possible U.S. military action in Afghanistan), it has always been uncompromising. In recognition of her tireless efforts to reverse the EU's encouragement of terrorist violence in the Middle East, in September 2003 Schröder was awarded the Theodore Lessing Prize for Exemplary Action. She addressed the Middle East Forum in New York on October 30, 2003, and Philadelphia on October 31, 2003.