Oslo

• The Norwegian Nobel Committee is set to announce the recipient of the annual Nobel Peace Prize on Oct. 6, 2023, drawing from a pool of 351 nominees.
• But given the track record of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, I always feel some dread before the peace prize announcement.
• Will the award celebrate a true peace builder, or a politician that just happened to sign a peace agreement?

A mixed history

• South African politician Nelson Mandela, for example, won the prize in 1993 for his work to help end apartheid.
• Despite the prize’s mixed track record – and despite calls by some to stop giving the award – I think the Nobel Peace Prize should continue.

The prize can be off-mark

• The Nobel Committee, in my view, does not always give the peace prize to people who actually deserve the recognition.
• And the prize is not a precursor to peace actually happening, or lasting.
• Some previous awardees are head-scratchers, for peace experts and casual observers and recipients alike.
• For example, former President Barack Obama said that he was even surprised by the award when he won it in 2009.

Peace is long term

• In contrast, American diplomat Henry Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating a cease-fire in Vietnam that same year.
• The Nobel committee tends to award prizes to those involved in current events and doesn’t award prizes long after those events have happened.
• But some awards have stood the test of time, in part because they were given to individuals following long struggles.

It’s about peace

• Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel – the founder of the Nobel awards – said the Nobel Peace Prize should go to the person “who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.” The language is somewhat archaic, but the message is clear – the peace prize was designed to be about stopping war and promoting peace.
• In my view, there are more than enough problems and deadly conflicts in the world whose solutions merit the award of the Nobel Peace Prize as a reflection of its original intent – to acknowledge attempts aimed at ending the scourge of war and building a sustainable peace.

• As Israeli soldiers withdrew from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank after two days of fighting, Israel’s generals and politicians were quick to hail the major military operation there a success.
• That problem is a legitimacy crisis facing the Palestinian Authority – the self-governing body that has limited rule over parts of the occupied West Bank, including Jenin, that are not directly ruled by Israel.
• As a scholar who specializes on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has written a book about it, I believe that this latest military operation will, in fact, only worsen that legitimacy crisis.

Failure to provide security

• To be sure, the assault of June 3-4 was on a much greater scale than previous raids into Jenin.
• Israeli officials and American politicians have blamed the Palestinian Authority and its octogenarian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, for this failure.
• This criticism, however, overlooks why the Palestinian Authority has lost control over parts of the northern West Bank.

Unpopular and increasingly autocratic

• The Palestinian Authority has become deeply unpopular with the Palestinian public.
• Abbas himself has even less support – 80% of Palestinians in that survey expressed dissatisfaction with him and wanted him to resign.
• Human rights groups have
  accused the Palestinian Authority of arbitrarily arresting people and even torturing detainees.
• The Palestinian Authority has undoubtedly become increasingly autocratic and authoritarian.

Fading hopes of statehood

• Nearly three decades later, the Palestinian Authority still exists, but Palestinian statehood looks like a distant prospect at best.
• Meanwhile, the land on which Palestinians expected this state would be built has been steadily eaten away by relentless Israeli settlement building.
• But this success comes at a steep price – first and foremost, to Palestinian civilians, but also to the Palestinian Authority.
• This will, I believe, only worsen its standing in the eyes of the Palestinian public and exacerbate its legitimacy crisis.

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