Hostage Families’ Group Backs Trump for Nobel Peace Prize Days Before Proclamation
JERUSALEM – The Family Forum, representing families of hostages held in Gaza, publicly endorsed Donald Trump for the Nobel peace Prize on Monday, October 7, just four days before the award ceremony on October 10. The organization’s call for recognition comes as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, based on a plan proposed by Trump to secure the release of hostages and end the war in Gaza, are underway in Egypt.
In a letter to the Norwegian nobel Committee, the Family Forum stated that Trump achieved “possible what many said unachievable” and deserves recognition for his “determination to establish peace” in the region. The forum urged the committee to award Trump the prize, noting he “has sworn that he would not rest and do not stop until the last hostage has returned home.”
The endorsement is likely to appeal to Trump, who has repeatedly asserted he is the only one truly deserving of the award and claimed it would be “an insult” if he were not selected, particularly given Barack Obama‘s receipt of the prize in 2009. Trump has also boasted of resolving “six or seven conflicts” in as many months, a claim disputed by experts.
Though, analysts suggest Trump’s “America First” approach and unconventional style present obstacles to winning the prize. Historian Øivind Stenersen, a Nobel Prize specialist, told AFP, “It’s totally unthinkable” because Trump “in many ways is in contrast to the ideals represented by the Nobel Prize.” Stenersen emphasized the prize’s historical support for “multilateral cooperation…through the UN,” while trump “represents a break with this principle because he follows his own path, unilaterally.”
Further complicating matters, Ingrid Hoem Sjurse, president of the RADTO Prize for Human Rights, previously noted that the suspension of funding to Sudan by the Trump administration had worsened the humanitarian situation there.
