Netanyahu, UAE Crown Prince nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United Arab
Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed have been nominated for the 2021 Nobel
Peace Prize by Lord David Trimble of Northern Ireland for their path-breaking
peace deal that opened the door for Israel to normalize ties with its Arab
neighbors.
The Prime Minister’s Office reported Tuesday on the
nomination, noting that Trimble was a recipient of the prize in 1998 for his
efforts to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland.
“Pursuant to
the rules of the Nobel Prize Committee, since Lord Trimble is a Nobel Peace
Prize laureate, his decision to submit Prime Minister Netanyahu's candidacy
will lead the committee to discuss the issue,” the Prime Minister's Office
said.
US President Donald Trump, who brokered the deal,
was not nominated by Trimble, but his name had been put forward separately, on
at least on three occasions, in September, for the Israeli-UAE deal.
Prior to Trimble’s nomination, Netanyahu’s name had
already been submitted at least twice for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
In September Netanyahu was nominated by Italian
lawmaker Paolo Grimoldi and then by Finish parliamentarian Vilhelm Junilla. The
latter nomination also included Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The Israel-UAE deal ratified in October is only the
third between Israel and an Arab state, followed by another with Bahrain that
was ratified this month.
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The winner, or winners of the 2021 Nobel Peace
Prize, will be announced in October in Oslo. This year’s prize was awarded to
the UN World Food Program. Of the 311 nominations, 211 were for people and 107
for organizations.
Deliberations over determining the winners are
mostly secret, and a final decision is taken by a five-member committee
appointed by the Norwegian parliament.
If Netanyahu were to be awarded the prize, he would
be the fourth Israeli recipient. In 1978, then-prime minister Menachem Begin
and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat were given the prize for the Israeli-Egypt
peace deal, which was formalized in 1979. It was the first agreement between
Israel and its most powerful historical enemy since statehood in 1948.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, who like Trump,
was the deal-broker, was also not given the prize, although he did receive it
in 2002 for his decades-long of work to resolve international conflicts and to
advance democracy.
King Hussein of Jordan, who signed the second peace
deal with Israel in 1994, also did not receive a prize.
In 1994, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly
to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, foreign minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat for the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accord. The deal, and the
subsequent one signed in 1995, did not lead to their intended objective of a
final status agreement to create a two-state resolution to the conflict.
