The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin Share this: The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 Yasser Arafat Yitzhak Rabin Prize share: 1/3 The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 was awarded jointly to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East". Photos: Copyright © The Nobel Foundation Share this: To cite this page MLA style: "The Nobel Peace Prize 1994". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 18 Jan 2017. < 1994 Nobel Peace Prize - An Essay by Irwin Abrams THE 1994 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR YITZHAK RABIN, SHIMON PERES AND YASIR ARAFAT By Irwin Abrams Published in THE NOBEL PRIZE ANNUAL for 1994 as "The Nobel Prize in Peace," (International Merchandising Corporation, New York): pp.

59-69. The award to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Israel and Chairman Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization for "their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" was one of the most controversial of all Nobel peace prizes. Immediately after it was announced on October 14, one of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee resigned, denouncing such recognition for the "terrorist" Arafat. Such a step was unprecedented. Dissension in the Committee had become public in 1973 at the time of the unpopular prize for Henry A. Kissinger and North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho, but the two members who opposed this choice would not have resigned had not the committee chair of that time told the press that the decision was unanimous. Misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in the press, although there was some approval for honoring "a converted terrorist." Jewish extremists came to Oslo from the United States to demonstrate against the award, not only condemning Arafat but any such peace with the Palestinians.

In mirror image, Palestinian extremists in the Middle East castigated Arafat for making peace with Israel, and fanatics committed acts of terrorism against Israelis in order to heighten distrust between the two peoples and undermine the agreements. Such actions did succeed in reducing popular support in Israel for the peace policy of Rabin and Pares, whose political opponents accused them of selling out Israel for a Nobel medal. In the days before the award ceremony in Oslo a newspaper headline declared, "PEACE HANGS BY A THREAD." According to the Declaration of Principles, signed in Washington in September 1993, Israeli soldiers were to withdraw from population centers in the West Bank so that the Palestinians could proceed with free elections. With the continued threat of attacks on Israelis from Palestinian terrorists, however, Rabin was unwilling to deprive Jewish settlers of military protection. He insisted that Arafat restrain the Palestinian extremists before the elections could take place. Violence has been part of the scene in the region for many decades. Violent conflicts between Palestinian inhabitants and Jewish immigrants broke out during the British mandate in the 1920s.

Jewish extremists used methods of terror in the effort to drive out the British, and four months after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 they murdered Count Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish U.N. mediator, because he worked for compromise and conciliation with the Arabs. After the unsuccessful effort of the Arab states to crush newborn Israel, war followed after war, Israel's victories resulting in a large Palestinian population under its rule. Unable to count upon the Arab states, the leaders of the movement for a Palestine homeland turned to terrorist methods and announced their aim as the destruction of Israel. Violence was met with violence as the Israeli military force in the occupied territories stepped up its repressive measures, while the conservative Israeli government intensified the effort to colonize the Palestinian lands with Jewish settlements. These policies only produced a widespread grassroots uprising, the intifada, the most serious threat to Israeli rule in the territories. The conflict seemed intractable. The conservative Israeli government of Menachem Begin, once a terrorist himself, did make peace with Egypt after President Anwar El Sadat took the first step with a dramatic airplane trip to Jerusalem, but Begin only made unkept promises for more autonomy for the Palestinians.

Both among the Palestinians and the Israelis, however, there were moderates who realized that mutual violence was a deadend street and who worked for reconciliation. Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinians, made the first advance when, for a variety of reasons, he agreed to recognize the existence of Israel and to abandon the methods of terrorism. This move strengthened the conviction of many Israelis that efforts for peace with the Palestinians should be undertaken. In June 1992 Rabin of the Labor Party was elected to lead a coalition government, committed to carry on the peace process. Peacemaking in the Middle East has its risks. One of the reasons why Sadat was assassinated in 1981 was for making peace with Israel. In 1978, when Begin came to Oslo to receive his share of the peace prize granted to him and Sadat, the Norwegian government took no chances and shifted the award ceremony to the Akershus castle-fortress, where he could be well guarded.

In 1994 the ceremony was not moved from the spacious city hall, where more than a thousand spectators could be accommodated, but extraordinary measures were taken there and throughout the city to ensure that the laureates would come to no harm. Almost 800 police officers and other security forces patrolled all sensitive areas, and metal detectors were set up at strategic points. Special care was taken when on the Jewish Sabbath Rabin and Peres walked through the streets to their hotel both from the synagogue and from their audience with King Harald. One newspaper cartoon showed the security forces even giving the dove of peace careful scrutiny. The need for such security was but another illustration of the vulnerability of the peace agreements. Some critics of the prize declared that it was premature, that the Committee should have waited until the Declaration of Principles had properly taken hold and been implemented.

However, Committee Chairman Francis Sejersted in his presentation speech emphasized that what the three laureates had done was a courageous effort "to break out of the vicious circle of hatred and violence and to point out a path to reconciliation." And, he noted, "developments have taken a new turning." "The situation is still full of tension," Sejersted admitted, "marked by violence, killings, and insecurity, and stability is still far to seek. Nevertheless, our laureates have not only shown that the road to reconciliation can be found, but also very bravely taken several steps down that road. It is in admiration of that effort, and in the hope that the process they have started will continue, that they are today being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize." The Committee's decision to give recognition to the Middle East peace agreement had been expected. Not only had the Committee given a similar award in 1993 to the leaders who were resolving conflict in South Africa, but this time Norway had had a principle role in bringing the two parties together.

It was Norwegian scholars working in the West Bank who drew Israelis and Palestinians into unofficial conversations, and when higher echelons became involved, it was the Norwegian foreign minister who made available the informal settings in his country where the negotiators could meet in secret and be exposed to the special brand of Norwegian hospitality. What was not expected was that the Committee would share the prize between three recipients. This is permitted by the statutes and has often been done with the science prizes, but the Norwegian Committee had never divided the peace prize among more than two. We can imagine a discussion in which committee members tried to decide which Israeli should be paired with Arafat. Should it be Peres, better known and liked in Norway, who as foreign minister had taken a more active part in the negotiations? Or Prime Minister Rabin, who, after all, would be a more appropriate partner for the leader of the other side? Finally, they would have realized that only tradition stood in the way of resolving the dilemma and named them both. The acceptance of their Nobel prizes was the second memorable ceremony in which the three laureates participated.

More significant was the well staged ceremony on the White House lawn in September 1993 when Peres and the PLO official Abu Mazen had signed the Declaration of Principles. The crowning moment had been the historic handshake between an eager Arafat and a reluctant Rabin. There was drama as well in the great auditorium of the Oslo city hall, when they stood side by side holding their medals and diplomas, the grizzled guerrilla chieftain turned statesman in his characteristic checkered kaffiyeh and his two traditional adversaries, Rabin, the former general, the practical man, and Peres, the politician with a vision. Rabin had made no secret of his dislike of Arafat, but, as he said, it is your enemy with whom you make peace, even your bitterest enemy. In a different arena Rabin and Peres themselves had long been rivals for leadership of the Labor Party. The honored trio had come a long way to these public moments of recognition. Rabin was the only one born in what was then Palestine. His parents were immigrants from Russia, his father by way of the United States. Peres had come as a child with his parents from White Russia.

Arafat was born of Palestinian parents in Cairo. He was only four when his mother died, and he spent the next four years with her family in Jerusalem, a period when the Palestinians were revolting against British rule. Arafat talks little about his early life, but one of his earliest memories is of the violent scene when British soldiers broke into his uncle's house after midnight, beat members of the family and smashed the furniture. Arafat spent his growing up years back in Cairo, where before he was seventeen he was smuggling arms to Palestine to be used against the British and the Jews. At nineteen he interrupted his engineering studies at the university in Cairo to fight against the Jews in Palestine. The establishment of the state of Israel and the defeat of the Arab powers left him in such despair that he applied for a visa to study in the United States. Recovering his spirits and retaining his dream of an independent Palestinian homeland, Arafat became the leader of the Palestinian students at the university. After graduation he went to Kuwait, where he ran a very successful contracting firm, spending all his spare time in political activities, to which he contributed most of his profits.

In 1958 he and his friends founded AlFatah, an underground network of secret cells, which was to become the most powerful of the groups composing the PLO. At the end of 1964 Arafat left Kuwait and his engineering career to become a fulltime revolutionary, organizing raids from Jordan into Israel. After the 1967 war, in which Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem were conquered by the Israelis, Arafat was in and out of the occupied territories in many disguises, unsuccessfully organizing for an uprising. His base was Jordan, where Fatah emerged from the underground and in 1969 took over the PLO, which, with Arafat as chairman, was no longer to be a puppet organization of the Arab states wanting to keep the Palestinians quiet, but an independent nationalist organization. The rest of Arafat's story is well known, how he developed the PLO into a state within a state in Jordan with its own military forces until King Hussein drove them out; how he attempted to build a similar organization in Lebanon, only to be driven out this time by Israel, and having to move PLO headquarters far away to Tunis.

Arafat not only kept the organization alive, but he was a survivor himself, escaping death in an airplane crash and recovering from a serious stroke. Arafat also survived any efforts of Israeli intelligence agencies to have him assassinated, the fate of several of his PLO colleagues. While his life was one of constant travel, interpreting the Palestinian cause in country after country, he managed to keep his movements as secret as he did any details about his private life. Even his marriage to Suha Tawil was kept secret for some fifteen months until her family told the press in 1992. The Nobel weekend was one of the first times when she accompanied her husband to such a public occasion. Suha, half his age, impressed everyone by her intelligence and beauty. The announcement that she is to have a baby was greeted with the hope that this new life could symbolize an auspicious future for the peace agreement. Arafat is the first to deliver his acceptance speech, following alphabetical order.

"Ever since I was entrusted by my people with the task of the hectic search for our lost home," he begins, speaking in an Arabic that suffers in translation, he has been confident that "the long path of pain" would finally end in "the blessed return and freedom." He accepts the prize for his people and will "carry it to our children who are promised freedom, safety and security in a homeland that is not threatened by an occupier from the outside or an abuser from within." He looks forward to mutual respect and cooperation with the Israelis, speaking of how the peace permits the Arab consciousness to express "its deep understanding of the European Jewish tragedy" and the Jewish consciousness to understand the suffering of the Palestinians, a suffering that deserves to hear "its free echo from within the tortured Jewish soul. No one is better able to understand torture than the tortured." Arafat recognizes that the prize is meant to encourage, not just to reward, and he asks for an acceleration of the peace process, for early military withdrawal and speeding up the elections, declaring that "denial of the legitimate rights would only generate feelings of injustice, keep the ember burning under ashes . . . .

ready to explode at any time." He refers to the unresolved issues of the Jewish settlements and of Jerusalem, "the city that holds the sacred spiritual shelter for Muslims, Christians and Jews." Also urgent is the need to release Palestinian detainees and prisoners, which could break "the psychological barriers still in the hearts." He asks as well for the money promised from donor countries to restore the Palestinian economy and rebuild the infrastructure. Peres begins his acceptance speech recalling the small Jewish town in White Russia where he was born as only a way station, since his dream was always to live in the Jewish homeland. Nothing is left of the Jewish town now, he says. Were it not for his family's eventual voyage to the port of Jaffa, he would probably have perished in the flames with his relatives. In the new land he went to school in an agricultural youth village. Barbed wire separated its green fields "from the bleakness of the enmity all around. In the morning, we would go out to the fields with scythes on our backs to harvest the crop. In the evening, we went out with rifles on our shoulders to defend the village. On Sabbaths we go out to visit our Arab neighbors.

On Sabbaths we would talk with them of peace, though the rest of the week we traded rifle fire across the darkness." From the youth village Peres went to a kibbutz in Lower Galilee, where "we had no houses, no electricity, no running water. But we had magnificent views and a lofty dream: to build a new, egalitarian society that would ennoble each of its members." The part that came true, he says, "created a new landscape. The part that did not come true resides in our hearts." Peres then tells of his two decades in the government ministry of defense, working closely with David BenGurion, "the greatest Jew of our time." We won the wars, which were forced on us, Peres says, but we did not win the greatest victory of all: "release from the need to win victories." Today, he insists, war is no longer a choice, "dialogue is the only option for our world." He still has dreams, for the Jewish people and for the Middle East. The small nation, "repeatedly persecuted, banished and downtrodden," has risen up again; "setting out anew on its national adventure . . .

reaching toward new heights of distinction and excellence. The message of the Jewish people to mankind is that faith and moral vision can triumph over all adversity." His greatest hope for the future is "that our children, like our forefathers, will not make do with the transient and the sham, but will continue to plow the historical Jewish furrow in the field of the human spirit," that Israel can be a source of inspiration to the world. The dream of Peres for the Middle East is for "a great sustained regional revival" without wars and enemies, with competition, not domination, "a Middle East which will serve as a spiritual and cultural point for the whole world." He dreams of a regional market economy, nations striving for economic equality and encouraging cultural pluralism, living standards raised, university education open to all young people. Rabin, like Peres, begins his acceptance speech personally, more personally in fact than has been his custom. At the tender age of sixteen, he says, when his dream was to be a water engineer, "I was handed a a rifle." He is referring to the summer of 1938 when he worked on a kibbutz where the youngsters were taught how to use guns and hand grenades.

After graduating in 1940 from an agricultural school for working class children, Rabin followed the principal's advice that, instead of becoming a farmer like the other boys, he should apply to the University of California to study hydraulic engineering. The application was even submitted, but while waiting for a reply, the young man had another offer. In 1941 the British were permitting the Jews to form a special unit to help them in a military operation against Syria and Lebanon. One of the commanding officers interviewed Rabin and recruited him. The officer was Moshe Dayan, destined to become a famous Israeli military leader. Rabin's decision led to his own distinguished military career, which included service as senior officer on the Egyptian front in the 1948 war and his most crowning achievement, the organization of victory as chief of staff in the six-day war of 1967. After a term as ambassador to the United States, Rabin entered politics and became Labor prime minister, 19741977.

He was minister of defense in a National Unity government when the intifada began in 1987, when he was reported to have told the Israeli soldiers to beat the Palestinians, to "break their bones." But the failure of such measures apparently convinced Rabin that Israel must make peace with the PLO, and before the Palestinians turned to more extremist groups. Successfully campaigning on a peace platform in 1992, as prime minister of a coalition government, Rabin approved the secret negotiations which the Norwegians helped start. Now, in accepting the peace prize, Rabin, the second general to receive the award, speaks, as did General George C. Marshall in 1953, of military cemeteries and how their monuments stand in testimony to the cost of human lives in war. Rabin tells of the hundreds of such cemeteries he sees from the window of his plane when flying over the Middle East: "From thousands of feet above them, the countless tombstones are silent.

But the sound of their outcry has carried from the Middle East throughout the world for decades." He pays tribute to the fallen, both "loved ones and foes." Rabin shares with his audience his experience as a military commander in giving the orders that will send thousands of young people to their deaths. He vividly describes "the moment just after taking the decision to mount an action: the hush as senior officers or cabinet ministers slowly rise from their seats; the sight of their receding backs; the sound of the closing door; and the silence in which I remain alone. That is the moment you grasp that as a result of the decision just made, people will be going to their deaths. People from my nation, people from other nations. And they still don't know it." What he shall remember most of all his memories, to his last day, are the silences, "the heavy silence" of the moment after the decision is made, and "the terrifying silence" of the moment before the orders must be given.

He speaks of the hopes of the peoples entrusted to their presidents and prime ministers "Terrible as it is to say, their lives are in our hands." Different as the cultures of their countries might be, these leaders must hearken to the universal message: "Take good heed of the sanctity of life." "There is only one means of sanctifying human lives," the former general declares. "The one radical solution is peace." The present process of building peace is "difficult, complex, trying. Mistakes could topple the whole structure and bring disaster down upon us. And so we are determined to do the job well despite the toll of murderous terrorism, despite fanatic and scheming enemies." And, Rabin insists, "We will prevail." As the members of the audience left the city hall and walked through the police lines, they passed the Jewish protesters, who chanted, "Shame!" and held up pictures of victims of Palestinian terrorists. But violence begets violence, and had Palestinian protesters been there, they could have held up similar placards. Later that evening a crowd of about two thousand celebrating the peace agreement marched in a torchlight procession to the hotel where the laureates greeted them from the balcony.

A prominent Norwegian diplomat, one of the secret negotiators, addressed them: "The Gordian knot presented by the situation in the Middle East has been broken once and for all. This focal point of war after war will never be the same. Extremists who do not want peace in this region are in the streets of Oslo this evening. Let us show them and the whole world that we believe Israelis and Palestinians can live together as good neighbors." Is their optimism justified? The three laureates receiving the cheers of the crowd stood on the balcony behind a protective glass barrier. Chairman Sejersted had commended the courage of the laureates, declaring that they "had staked their political lives" on the success of their effort. Perhaps not only their political lives. With good reason Arafat always calls the Oslo accords "the peace of the brave." That very night, after the evening banquet, the final event of the day, the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators went back to the table to continue their labors, and they tried again on the next day to settle the outstanding differences over the military withdrawal, the settlements and the arrangements for the Palestinian elections. But even the famed "spirit of Oslo" did not help them succeed.

And in the following days fanatics on both sides kept up their efforts to undermine the peace. The Norwegian Nobel Committee was fully aware of the fragility of the peace agreement reached by the three laureates. It is quite possible that the masses of the two peoples may not fully embrace the Declaration of Principles, that the complexities of its implementation may be beyond the best efforts of the negotiators. Nevertheless, in recognizing the magnitude of the achievement thus far and in strengthening the determination of the laureates to make the peace prevail, the Committee has played its own part as peacemaker. Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat Are Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize | World History Project Dec 10 1994 Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat Are Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize In the early 1990s, Arafat and leading Fatah officials engaged the Israeli government in a series of secret talks and negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords.

The agreement called for the implementation of Palestinian self-rule in portions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip over a five year period, along with an immediate halt to and gradual removal of Israeli settlements in those areas. The accords called for a Palestinian police force to be formed from local recruits and Palestinians abroad, to patrol areas of self-rule. Authority over the various fields of rule, including education and culture, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism, would be transferred to the Palestinian interim government. Both parties agreed also on forming a committee that would establish cooperation and coordination dealing with specific economic sectors, including utilities, industry, trade and communication. Prior to signing the accords, Arafat—as Chairman of the PLO and its official representative—signed two letters renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel. In return, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on behalf of Israel, officially recognized the PLO. The following year, Arafat and Rabin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Shimon Peres. The Palestinian reaction was mixed. The Rejectionist Front of the PLO allied itself with Islamists in a common opposition against the agreements.

It was rejected also by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan as well as by many Palestinian intellectuals and the local leadership of the Palestinian territories. However, the inhabitants of the territories generally accepted the agreements and Arafat's promise for peace and economic well-being. Source: Wikipedia Added by: Rob Brent In 1992 Rabin was elected as chairman of the Labor Party, winning against Shimon Peres. In the elections that year his party, strongly focusing on the popularity of its leader, managed to win a clear victory over the Likud of incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. However the left-wing bloc in the Knesset only won an overall narrow majority, facilitated by the disqualification of small nationalist parties that did not manage to pass the electoral threshold. Rabin formed the first Labor-led government in fifteen years, supported by a coalition with Meretz, a left wing party, and Shas, a Mizrahi ultra-orthodox religious party. Rabin played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian National Authority and granted it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Prior to the signing of the accords, Rabin received a letter from PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel, and on the same day, 9 September 1993, Rabin sent Arafat a letter officially recognizing the PLO. During this term of office, Rabin also oversaw the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace in 1994. For his role in the creation of the Oslo Accords, Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres. The Accords greatly divided Israeli society, with some seeing Rabin as a hero for advancing the cause of peace and some seeing him as a traitor for giving away land belonging to Israel. Many Israelis on the right wing often blame him for Jewish deaths in terror attacks, attributing them to the Oslo agreements. Rabin was also awarded the 1994 Ronald Reagan Freedom Award by the former president's wife, former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

The award is only given to "those who have made monumental and lasting contributions to the cause of freedom worldwide," and who "embody President Reagan's lifelong belief that one man or woman truly can make a difference." Source: Wikipedia Added by: Rob Brent More information Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres (1994) - Nobel Peace Prize Winners - Pictures - CBS News Nobel Peace Prize Winners Next Liu Xiaobo (2010) Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo poses for a photographer in this April 2008 photo. Imprisoned Liu won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, Oct. 8, 2010, for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights," a prize likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had warned the Nobel committee not to honor him.

Credit: AP Photo/Kyodo News Barack Obama (2009) The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." He is only the third sitting president to receive the honor (Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, and Woodrow Wilson received it in 1919). Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon Martti Ahtisaari (2008) Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland, was selected "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts." He is seen here posing with his medal and diploma at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at City Hall in Oslo, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008. Credit: AP Photo/John McConnico Al Gore and the U.N.'s IPCC (2007) Former Vice President Al Gore, left, and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.

Rajendra K Pachauri, right, is head of the IPCC. Credit: AP Muhammad Yunus (2006) Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus addresses a press conference in Dhaka, Friday, Oct. 13, 2006, after receiving the news of his award. The economics professor began fighting poverty during a devastating famine in Bangladesh, setting up the tiny Grameen Bank in 1976 to provide access to credit to people too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Credit: Farjana K. Godhuly/AFP/Getty Images Mohamed ElBaradei (2005) Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, right, accepts his prize from Ole Danbolt Mjs, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee at City Hall in Oslo, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005. ElBaradei shared the award with his International Atomic Energy Agency for efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons.

Credit: AP Photo/John McConnico Wangari Maathai (2004) Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work as leader of the Green Belt Movement, which has sought to empower women, improve the environment and fight corruption in Africa for almost 30 years. Maathai is seen here speaking on the phone after learning she'd won the honor, Oct 8, 2004, in Ihururu, Kenya. Credit: AP Shirin Ebadi (2003) Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel peace prize "for her efforts for democracy and human rights." Ebadi, right, is pictured accepting the award from committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjos, Dec. 10, 2003, in Oslo, Norway. Credit: AP Jimmy Carter (2002) Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was selected "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter is pictured in a July 8, 2002 file photo.

Credit: CBS United Nations and Kofi Annan (2001) The prize was split between the United Nations and its secretary-general, Kofi Annan, of Ghana, "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." U.N. General Assembly President Han Seung-soo, right, and Annan are pictured at the Nobel Peace Awards ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Dec. 10, 2001, in Oslo, Norway. Credit: AP Kim Dae-jung (2000) South Korean President Kim Dae-jung was selected "for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular." Kim, right, is pictured during an audience with Norwegian King Harald, Dec. 10, 2000, in Oslo, Norway. Credit: Ap/Scanpix Credit: AP John Hume and David Trimble (1998) The prize was split between John Hume, a moderate Catholic leader, and David Trimble, leader of the Protestant Ulster Unionists, for their efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Trimble is pictured at left shaking hands with Hume on the eve of the Northern Ireland Referendum, May 21, 1998. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is at center. Credit: AP International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams (1997) The prize was split between the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the campaign's coordinator, American Jody Williams, "for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines." Pictured is Tun Channareth, a Cambodian who lost both legs to a land mine, after accepting the award on behalf of the organization, Dec. 10, 1997. Credit: AP Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta (1996) The prize was split between Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and advocate Jose Ramos-Horta, both of East Timor, for their work toward ending the conflict there. Ximenes Belo, right, and Ramos-Horta are pictured during the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 1996.

Credit: AP Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (1995) The prize was split between British atomic scientist Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." Rotblat is pictured accepting his award Dec. 10, 1995, in Oslo, Norway. Credit: AP Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres (1994) The prize was split among Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel's Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East." Peres, with an unidentified aide, is pictured signing the agreement at the White House, Sept. 13, 1993. Looking on from left are Rabin, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Arafat. Credit: AP Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk (1993) The prize was split between South African leaders Nelson R.

Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." De Klerk, right, and Mandela are seen posing with their prizes in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 1993. Credit: AP Guatemalan Indian rights advocate Rigoberta Mench Credit: AP Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) Activist Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) was selected "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights." Suu Kyi is seen here speaking to reporters during a press conference in Rangoon, Burma, March 4, 1997. Credit: AP Mikhail Gorbachev (1990) Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was selected "for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community." Gorbachev is seen here bowing his head in the Congress of People's Deputies shortly after Foreign Minister Edvard Shevardnadze announced his plan to resign, in Moscow, Dec. 20, 1990.

Credit: AP Yasser Arafat - Facts Yasser Arafat The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin Share this: Born: 24 August 1929, Cairo, Egypt Died: 11 November 2004 Residence at the time of the award: Palestine Prize motivation: "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" Role: President of the Palestinian National Authority, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO Field: negotiation Prize share: 1/3 A Pistol and an Olive Branch In 1974, Yasser Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly. He said he was holding an olive branch for peace in one hand and a freedom fighter's pistol in the other. Twenty years later he and the Israeli leaders Peres and Rabin received the Peace Prize for having opted for the olive branch by signing the so-called Oslo Accords in Washington. The agreement was aimed at reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Arafat grew up in Cairo and Jerusalem. He took part in the war against the new state of Israel in 1948, when many Palestinians were expelled.

As a qualified engineer, he took a job in Kuwait. From there, he organized the guerrilla group Fatah, which attacked Israel. Following Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Arafat became the leader of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), an umbrella organization for Palestinian guerrilla groups. The groups resorted to terror to attract world attention, but it gradually became clear to Arafat that he would have to accept the state of Israel for the USA to be willing to mediate in the dispute. He approved the meeting of Palestinian negotiators with Israelis at secret negotiations in Oslo. Copyright © The Norwegian Nobel Institute Share this: Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (1922 - 1995) Israeli statesman and soldier who, as prime minister of Israel (1974-77, 1992-95), led his country toward peace with its Palestinian and Arab neighbours. He was chief of staff of Israel's armed forces during the Six-Day War (June 1967).

Along with Shimon Peres, his foreign minister, and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasir Arafat, Rabin received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994. Rabin graduated from Kadourie Agricultural School in Kfar Tabor and in 1941 joined the Palmach, the Jewish Defense Forces' commando unit. He participated in actions against the Vichy French in Syria and Lebanon. During the Israeli war of independence (1948), he directed the defense of Jerusalem and also fought the Egyptians in the Negev. He graduated (1953) from the British staff college, became chief of staff in January 1964, and conceived the strategies of swift mobilization of reserves and destruction of enemy aircraft on the ground that proved decisive in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War. In 1968, on retirement from the army, Rabin became his country's ambassador to the United States, where he forged a close relationship with U.S. leaders and procured advanced American weapons systems for Israel.

He drew fire from Israeli hard-liners because he advocated withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war as part of a general Middle East peace settlement. Returning to Israel in March 1973, Rabin became active in Israeli politics. He was elected to the Knesset (parliament) as a member of the Labour Party in December, joining Prime Minister Golda Meir's cabinet as minister of labour in March 1974. After Meir resigned in April 1974, Rabin assumed leadership of the party and became Israel's fifth (and first native-born) prime minister in June. As Israel's leader he acted as both dove and hawk--securing a cease-fire with Syria in the Golan Heights but ordering a bold raid at Entebbe, Uganda, in July 1976, in which Israeli and other hostages were rescued after their plane was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

Rabin was forced to call a general election for May 1977, but in April, during the electoral campaign, he relinquished the prime ministership and stepped down as leader of the Labour Party after it was revealed that he and his wife had maintained bank accounts in the United States, in violation of Israeli law. He was replaced as party leader by Shimon Peres. Rabin served as defense minister in the Labour-Likud coalition governments from 1984 to 1990, responding forcefully to an uprising by Palestinians in the occupied territories. In February 1992, in a nationwide vote by Labour Party members, he regained leadership of the party from Peres. After the victory of his party in the general elections of June 1992, he again became prime minister. As prime minister, Rabin put a freeze on new Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. His government undertook secret negotiations with the PLO that culminated in the Israel-PLO accords (September 1993), in which Israel recognized the PLO and agreed to gradually implement limited self-rule for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In October 1994 Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan, after a series of secret meetings, signed a full peace treaty between their two countries. The territorial concessions aroused intense opposition among many Israelis, particularly settlers in the West Bank. While attending a peace rally in November 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Robert Slater, Rabin of Israel: Warrior for Peace (1996), is a biography. Main Page | About Us | All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Timeline of Nobel Prize Winners is not affiliated with The Nobel Foundation . External sites are not endorsed or supported by Copyright © 2003 All Rights Reserved. Yasser Arafat - - Biography.com Yasser Arafat Muammad 'Abd al-Ra'f al-Qudwah al-usayn Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini Yasser Arafat was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 until his death in 2004, a tumultuous period in which clashes with neighboring Israel were prevalent.

IN THESE GROUPS Famous People Named Arafat Synopsis Born in Cairo in 1929, Yasser Arafat was named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization 40 years later. From this post, he was at the forefront of years of violence, border disputes and the Palestinian liberation movement, all centering on neighboring Israel. Arafat signed a self-governing pact with Israel in 1991, at the Madrid Conference, and together with Israeli leaders made several attempts at lasting peace soon after, notably through the Oslo Accords (1993) and the Camp David Summit of 2000. Stemming from the Oslo Accords, Arafat and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize, but the terms were never implemented. Arafat ceded his PLO chairman post in 2003, and died in Paris in 2004. In November 2013, Swiss researchers released a report containing evidence suggesting that his death was the result of poisoning.

Early Years Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1929, Yasser Arafat was sent to live with his mother’s brother in Jerusalem when his mother died in 1933. After spending four years in Jerusalem, Arafat returned to Cairo to be with his father, with whom Arafat never had close ties. (Arafat did not attend his father's 1952 funeral.) In Cairo, while still a teenager, Arafat began smuggling weapons to Palestine to be used against the Jews and British, the latter of which had an administrative role in the Palestinian lands. Playing a part that he would inhabit his entire life, Arafat left the University of Faud I (later Cairo University) to fight against the Jews during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which resulted in the establishment of the state of Israel when the Jews prevailed. Fatah In 1958, Arafat and some associates founded Al-Fatah, an underground network that advocated armed resistance against Israel. By the mid-1960s, the group had congealed enough that Arafat left Kuwait, becoming a full-time revolutionary and staging raids into Israel.

The year 1964 was seminal for Arafat, marking the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which brought together a number of groups working toward a free Palestinian state. Three years later, the Six-Day War erupted, with Israel once again pitted against the Arab states. Once again, Israel prevailed, and in the aftermath Arafat’s Fatah gained control of the PLO when he became the chairman of the PLO executive committee in 1969. The PLO Moving operations to Jordan, Arafat continued to develop the PLO. Eventually expelled by King Hussein, however, Arafat moved the PLO to Lebanon, and PLO-driven bombings, shootings and assassinations against Israel and its concerns were commonplace events, both locally and regionally, notably with the 1972 murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. The PLO was driven out of Lebanon in the early 1980s, and Arafat soon after launched the intifada ("tremor") protest movement against Israel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The intifada was marked by continual violence in the streets with Israeli retaliation. Peace on the Horizon?

The year 1988 marked a change for Arafat and the PLO, when Arafat gave a speech at the United Nations declaring that all involved parties could live together in peace. The resulting peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, which allowed for Palestinian self-rule and elections in the Palestinian territory (in which Arafat was elected president). (Around this time, in 1990, Arafat, at 61 years of age, married a 27-year-old Palestinian Christian, remaining married until his dying day.) In 1994, Arafat and Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin all received the Nobel Prize for Peace, and the following year they signed a new agreement, Oslo II, which laid the foundation for a string of peace treaties between the PLO and Israeli, including the Hebron Protocol (1997), the Wye River Memorandum (1998), the Camp David Accords (2000) and the "roadmap for peace" (2002).

Later Years Regardless of treaties and the best-laid plans between the two parties, peace was always elusive, and, after issuing a second intifada in 2000 and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Arafat was confined by Israel to his headquarters in Ramallah. In October 2004, Arafat fell ill with flulike symptoms and, his situation worsening, was transported to Paris, France, for medical treatment. He died there the following month, on November 11. In the years since his death, conspiracy theories regarding the true cause of Arafat's demise have abounded, many holding Israel responsible. In November 2013, researchers in Switzerland released a report revealing that tests conducted on Arafat's remains and some of his belongings support the theory that the late Egyptian leader was poisoned. Evidence from the report suggests that radioactive polonium—a highly toxic substance—had been used. Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's widow, supported the findings in media interviews as proof of Arafat's murder. Other authorities, including a Russian medical investigation team called to the case, have maintained that they believe Arafat died of natural causes.

Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information BBC ON THIS DAY | 14 | 1994: Israelis and Arafat share peace prize About This Site | Text Only 1994: Israelis and Arafat share peace prize Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and two Israelis, the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, have been named the winners of this year's Nobel peace prize. The announcement has been marred by the resignation of one of the Nobel peace prize committee members. Kare Kristiansen objected to the honour being given to the PLO leader, whom he described as "too tainted by violence, terror and torture". The award has also been overshadowed tonight by the bungled rescue of a kidnapped Israeli soldier from his militant Palestinian captors, which ended in the deaths of the captive, three of his kidnappers and one of his would-be rescuers.

I would happily give back the Nobel Peace Prize to bring back the lives of the soldiers who fell Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin It is the first time the prize has been divided among more than two named individuals and only the third time in the prize's 93-year history that a committee member has broken ranks publicly and quit. The peace prize follows the historic handshake between the PLO leader and the Israeli Prime Minister on the White House lawn on 13 September 1993, marking an agreement to give the Palestinians limited autonomy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho. The Nobel Committee statement said the award was to honour a political act "one that called for great courage on both sides...By concluding the Oslo accords Arafat, Peres and Rabin have made substantial contributions to a historic process through which peace and cooperation can replace war and hate". But the failed rescue attempt of Corporal Nahshon Waxman has served to highlight how frail the peace is in the Middle East. The Israelis had accused Hamas of holding Corporal Waxman in PLO-administered territory.

But after the PLO leader ordered a search and detained some 150 suspects, the soldier was eventually found in an Israeli-occupied area of the West Bank. The kidnappers were demanding the release of their leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and 200 Hamas extremists being held in Israeli jails. Otherwise, they said, they would kill Corporal Waxman. Mr Rabin refused to negotiate and - an hour before the captors' deadline expired - Mr Rabin ordered the rescue attempt. He said afterwards: "I would happily give back the Nobel Peace Prize to bring back the lives of the soldiers who fell. "Whoever wants to advance peace must fight the radical, murderous terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the rejectionists because they are the murderers of peace." Middle East experts were surprised at the inclusion of Mr Peres in the award. Although he and Rabin represent the same political party, they are bitter rivals. Both men have claimed the credit for last year's breakthrough. Today's was the second Nobel peace prize awarded to peacemakers in the Middle East, the first being the 1978 joint award to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israelia Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Yasser Arafat | Nobels fredspris (1929-2004) A pistol and an olive branch In 1974, Yasser Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly. He said he was holding an olive branch for peace in one hand and a freedom fighter's pistol in the other. Twenty years later he and the Israeli leaders Peres and Rabin received the Peace Prize for having opted for the olive branch by signing the so-called Oslo Accords in Washington. The agreement was aimed at reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Arafat grew up in Cairo and Jerusalem. He took part in the war against the new state of Israel in 1948, when many Palestinians were expelled. As a qualified engineer, he took a job in Kuwait. From there, he organized the guerrilla group Fatah, which attacked Israel. Following Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Arafat became the leader of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), an umbrella organization for Palestinian guerrilla groups.

The groups resorted to terror to attract world attention, but it gradually became clear to Arafat that he would have to accept the state of Israel for the USA to be willing to mediate in the dispute. He approved the meeting of Palestinian negotiators with Israelis at secret negotiations in Oslo. AS

Question: Who with Arafat and "Rabin received the Nobel Peace prize in 1994?
Answer: Peres