I survived a landmine

Jerry White's incredible story of survival

Jerry White was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime when his right leg was blown off by a landmine. Today, he’s a Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist who still hopes for a victim-free world.

“All I could smell was blood, burnt flesh and metal. The explosion had ripped my right foot from my ankle and thrown me into the air. My left leg had been blown open and there was bone sticking out of my calf. I could see my knee-cap where the shrapnel had lacerated my skin and I was bleeding profusely, shouting out: ‘I have no foot, I have no foot.’”

It was April 12, 1984 and Jerry White’s life changed forever in a matter of seconds. Today, as co-founder of Survivor Corps, he is a recognized leader of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Back then, he was just another 20-year old traveler in Israel.

Jerry and two friends, Fritz Balwit and David Kenyan decided to go camping in the Banyas the northern-most tip of Israel near the Syrian border, on the edge of the Golan Heights.

“It was gorgeous,” Jerry recalls. “Very hilly and green with lush vegetation and waterfalls flowing.” The three friends hiked up through some woods and ended in an area near a ridge; on one side they could see down into Syria, and the other, onto the Kibbutzes of Israel.

“But little did we know we were also looking down onto a one-time Syrian stronghold from the ‘Yom Kippur’ Arab-Israeli war of 1967,” Jerry says. “There were no fences to keep us out and no signs warning of any danger. I was with my two best friends in the best camping spot imaginable.

“I lead the way,” he says. “It was a beautiful, sunny day – just us and the green hillside and overgrown brush scrub. There was no path and we picked our way down through the rocks.”

Then there was the explosion.

“I thought we were under terrorist attack,” Jerry says, “I thought a rocket had landed at my feet and it was only a matter of time before the....

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