A Palestinian pacifist, Jean Zaru, on Tuesday won the Anna Lindh award for dedicating her life to "defending non violence as a solution" to the Mideast conflict, the prize committee said.

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Jean Zaru, born in British Palestine in 1940, worked for many years as a teacher at a Quaker school in Ramallah in the West Bank and wrote books pushing pacifism and non-violence.

The still active 70-year-old activist was hailed by the prize committee "for her tireless efforts to build up a true culture of peace and to emphasise the right of all people to a dignified and just life, values that also characterised Anna Lindh's work."

"Receiving this prize will encourage me to continue, to not give up when everything we have worked for falls apart," Zaru was quoted as saying in the statement announcing the prize.

"I will continue my work to resist violent and oppressive structures with non-violence, so we can transform ourselves, our societies and the world we share," she added.

The prize was created in honour of popular Swedish foreign minister, Anna Lindh, who had been tipped to become the country's first woman prime minister when she was fatally stabbed on September 10, 2003 by a mentally unstable 24-year-old man.

Her death, at the age of just 46, sent shockwaves through Sweden and brought back painful memories of the still-unsolved 1986 assassination of prime minister Olof Palme.

The prize was created in 2004 to support "primarily women and young people who work in the spirit of Anna Lindh," and has in the past gone to among others Israeli journalist Amira Hass and Maldive President Mohamed Nasheed.

Zaru was to receive her award and the 150,000-kronor (16,000-euro, 19,000-dollar) prize money at an official ceremony in Stockholm on June 10.