Mr. Geir Lundestad, Ph. D.
Director,
Nobel Peace Prize Committee,
Oslo.
Dear Sir,
On behalf of Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, I hereby submit an official request to annulthe Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Mr. Shimon Peres.
We are aware of the legalistic obstacles that seemingly prevent the retroactivecancellation of a prize already awarded, but we believe that this is a special case thatdemands special treatment.
The prize was awarded to Mr. Peres – after some hesitation, I believe – for the part he played inachieving the Oslo Declaration of Principles, a major step towards Israel-Palestinianpeace. According to the preamble of the DOP, this peace was supposed to be based on mutualrespect and conciliation.
For some unjust reason, the prize was not awarded to Mr. Mahmud Abbas, (Abu Mazen), thePalestinian counterpart, who has worked for Israeli-Palestinian peace long before Mr.Peres, at a time when Mr. Peres was diligently setting up settlements of Israeli right-wingextremists on Palestinian land. I myself met Mr. Abbas many times in Tunis, from 1982 on, andbefore that, in 1974, established contacts with his emissaries, Said Hamami and IssamSartawi, peace heroes who were both murdered.
Be that as it may, now a completely new situation has emerged.
On March 7, 2001, a so-called “National Unity” government was set up in Israel, dominated byMr. Ariel Sharon, an extreme right-wing leader whose ambition is to annex all Palestinianterritories to a Greater Israel, cover them with Israeli towns and villages and condemn thePalestinian people to imprisonment in a number of disconnected “Bantustans” – if not worse.This government included – and does include today – ministers openly committed to the idea ofethnic cleansing.
Mr. Peres eagerly agreed to take up the post of Foreign Minister in this government, inpractice selling the prestige attached to his Novel Prize to Mr. Sharon, enabling him tocamouflage his real intentions and gain the confidence of the world at a critical stage. Sincethan, Mr. Peres is providing pretexts for all Mr. Sharon’s deeds and
misdeeds, becoming in effect a travelling salesman and propaganda minister for Mr. Sharon.From time to time he voices some vague misgivings, but in effect he and Mr. Sharon play the oldtrick of “good cop” and “bad cop”. As a member of the government, Mr. Peres bearsresponsibility for acts that may lead their perpetrators to indictments in The Hague.
It is the height of irony that Mr. Peres, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his part inachieving the Oslo agreement, is now helping Mr. Sharon to destroy the agreement andeverything resulting from it.
When Alfred Nobel created this renowned institution, his intention was to reward man andwoman with a moral backbone, setting them up as examples to mankind. He certainly did notintend to encourage acts of brazen political prostitution.
We believe that the cancellation may also provide a warning against such act in the future.
In all due respect,
Uri Avnery,
Former Member of the Knesset,
Alternative Nobel Prize laureate.