Menu
Menu
Distinguished Chairperson and Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Oslo, Norway.
Distinguished Chairperson and Distinguished Members of the Swedish Nobel Prize in Literature.
I have been following with great interest the yearly "recognitions" your esteemed Committees awards every year, for some five decades now. In the domains of Chemistry, Physics, Physiology, Medicine and even Economics, I was directly concerned with the title and details of the achievement and its impact on our future life. The titles of Literature and Peace, however, not generally conforming to well-defined standards, carry the heavy burden of Politics, Policies and Political Opinions, Penchants and Stands.
This particular year's Nobel Peace Prize entitled "Efforts to end sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict" has grown to become a much-remarked concern worldwide, mainly in the ever- expanding war zones. In this respect, both nominees Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad have deserved the long way the recognition of their hardship days.
At many earlier instances, I had felt both the urge and the necessity to express my opinion on such matters, decade after decade. Kindly allow me to say that when "Elite" Institutions finally leave the North-by-North-West of the Globe to choose a candidate from the South-by-South-East region, somehow, I feel and fear, some arrangements make sure to "sterilise" the acknowledged achievement, the original thoughts, body-language or, most important, later political views and stands. Kindly allow me to sow some glimmer of light onto this dark statement.
I shall select a few examples with all due appreciation for your Committees, your choices, the mostly deserving laureates and their historical works. I wondered lately about the young Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate (2014) who, at 17, showed strong spirit, courage, endurance and perseverance and surely deserves the recognition she had in the face of the Taliban. I wonder though what made a teen-ager, "de passage" through London, rush, in her very earliest public appearances, to show a very "normal" interest in reading Salman Rushdie's works, a universally controversial subject, amongst millions of writers. Repeating, at such an early teen age, not to mention the author's provocative book and British titles. My humble opinion is that such a premature statement was detrimental for young expectations to start seeing the world through this author's "best" quote that Freedom of Expression exists only in the Freedom to Offend. This folding of events contributes to the "oriental"-said belief that everything in this world moves according to a conspiracy, and where even disastrous events such as that which led to Malala's recognition, seem to "work” according to a Political Agenda. It should be of prime importance here to remind that the original "Mission Statement" (if we may call it so) of Alfred Nobel, when he advanced 94% of his fortune towards the founding and sustainability of the esteemed Organisation holding his name, was:
" to reward those who Serve Humanity".
This brings back memories of my old London University student days in the late sixties when I first read about "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (published in November 1962), for which Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was appraised worldwide winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. How I wish the concerned eminent Committee would award such a Nobel title to the author of "One Day in the Life of Mohammad Durra", the little Arab boy assassinated by the Israeli army while cuddled in the arms of his father, the streaming of the video of which did not last long enough because the word "viral" was not yet fashionable … and for other reasons too! The normal answer would be that there were published no such a book title and, right it would be, for fear of it not reaching where it should, and if it did then… but I think it would have and in fact, it still should.
Earlier on we also hailed the recognition of Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace-building Work. Respect is surely due towards her original struggle at the time of the award. Again, and ever since, the "Nobeled" lady laureate disappeared from the frontline of the concerned international scene as regards the depraved children, deprived people, pandemics and famine striking her country, let alone destruction and endless poverty. Coincidence again! Public Opinion would appreciate more witnessing your laureates spend their post-award lives as Ambassadors of Good Intentions and Deeds, as Alfred Nobel wanted them to be.
I am specifically mentioning Arab women to create awareness for an Arab girl, an icon very proudly named Ahed Tamimi. Ahed with most members of her family and entourage, showed unparalleled courage, perseverance, drive, unmatched resolution, spirit and sense of higher values for all Arabs. She fought for her people's basic Human Rights since she was 10 years old (now 19). At last, out of the Israeli detention "facilities"(remark here the friendly description?) Ahed roves the world now, raising awareness about human plight, advocating for human values, the values of rights as the right values, on behalf of all Humankind. I draw your concerned attention to her, you still can do, she is still young and has a long long way to go.
It goes without reminding that Palestine and Palestinian Arabs have thousands of such examples to present, martyrs and martyrs-on-hold, if and whenever you care to look into their sacrifices. Is it too much to call for a Nobel Prize to be granted to the "Empty Stomachs"? These human beings, now in thousands, who have the "guts" to be the living examples for the purpose of exposing Injustice and resisting all sorts of inhuman treatment? Alongside them are “heaped” a host of political prisoners, adding from 6000 to 11000 in the past decade, lingering, without trial, in the despicable "facilities". At least, the prize moneys, when multiplied by the thousands, would contribute to alleviate the "Hunger" pangs of "Les Misérables" and attenuate the awful howls of:
"Wretched of the Earth, Unite".
I know that the centerpiece of my letter here, you will rightly say, is too much about Palestine. Allow me, as an Arab, native of this region of ancient civilization, lately so colonised and martyrised, to give it more focus within this now exploding Globe. I belong to a land, a people, an outstanding culture full of worthy traditions and loaded with higher human ethics. These people contributed in outstanding ways to the advancement of civil life. Since centuries and in spite of all the “Demonisation” campaigns they have evolved here facing all kinds of challenges and made unending sacrifices. They now thrive to overcome the "technological" lag and labour hard towards universal wellness!
I honestly care for your esteemed Institutions and decisions and want them to stay in my mind as non-partisan as I thought they were in my early days. I do not want to start thinking like many do now that, like the Nuremberg and other World Courts, NATO and many other organisations, it would become part of the so many "well-intentioned" Bretton Woods institutions of olden times.
Fifty eight years on since "Georgia on my Mind" was sang. 70% of black voters have still not been able to register in the state of Georgia for the purpose of voting in the upcoming mid-term elections of November 2018 pending the right to survey minority votes. The "Marginalised" would rejoice to your awarding of a "Posthumous" Nobel on Human Rights grounds to the late Ray Charles.
The "Rest of the World" might understand why special recognition could be given to Martin Luther King and not Malcolm X, to Mahatma Ghandi and Jawaharlal Nehru and not Che Guevara, perhaps on the premise of evading revolutionary issues. But we cannot and the world shall not ignore outstanding achievers such as Nelson Mandela and Jamal Abdul Nasser, Patrice Lumumba or Al-Mahdi Ben Barka. Due recognition is owed to Salvador Allende and Omar Al-Mokhtar, Ahmed Ben Bella and Hugo Chavez, Ho Chi Minh and Desmond Tutu (a colleague of student days at King's College) and many others. More and more should be recalled, more referred to the writings and feelings of the Frantz Fanon, Régis Debray and Angela (Yvonne) Davis contemporary era, to mention but a few in a wide world loaded with worthy freedom activists.
If violence is an eliminatory factor, then certainly Menachem Begin is not eligible for a Nobel Peace Prize (1978). Nor should be any leader of any super or colonial power, regardless of the eloquent speeches he or she might give from atop controversial podiums and by way of charismatic topics across the world. One should assume that your noble intention in this instance was to try to "preach" criminals into a more correct plan of action for the well-being of the World. An attempt to try to bring their followers back from their criminal minds into peace-oriented endeavours. Such valued intentions were misunderstood by murderers, war criminals, criminals against humanity. The like rogues, more and more, show the coming generations, that they can get away with their murders.
Awarding a criminal of war alongside his victim criminalises both and acquits neither.
In no instance should we pave the way for war criminals to dynamite their drive towards being considered peace-seekers, let alone makers. This would be a flagrant application of their favourite motto: "The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions". At Speakers' Corner of Hyde Park (in the aftermath of the 1967 six days war) the so-called state of "Israel" used to be labeled as a "Piece-loving" country. It had just occupied a Piece of Egypt, a Piece of Jordan and a Piece of Syria, not to mention non-ending Pieces of Palestine.
Another Zionist slogan would later pride to consider their gathered community as "a Spearhead of Civilisation in a Sea of Hostility", which sounds like "Satan in Wonderland" to us nowadays.
On the other side of the planet, a Free-World super-power has since WWII, single-handed, killed 20 million people, dropped bombs on people in 30 countries, overthrown 36 foreign governments and interfered in at least 82 foreign elections. To its record is added some 50 assassination attempts on foreign leaders. It lately systematically destroyed a particular region of the globe, of same religious affiliation populations. This “Glorious” record is also loaded with some 34 countries attacked before WWII (due references can be provided). All these deeds were performed for the ultimate Cause: to bring Peace, Democracy and clear the place for the Reign of Human Rights. The World has in fact witnessed how "successful" these crusades were. Surely: "Mission Accomplished" spread across wide banners standing high over war machines. People responsible for the invention of Terrorism, Terrorists, and War on Terror, regimes who imprison citizens for the chanting of the National Anthem and dissemination of their Heritage on grounds of terrorist propaganda, the responsible for the glorifying of such crimes and related criminals should all be accounted for their crimes. They should later be granted the "Right to be Forgotten", this recent legislation issue leading nowadays its way into the European courts and ferociously challenged by Google's top lawyers.
Although country sanctions are trying to do an internationally rejected job in many a country, Palestine is the first and only Prison-Country in History. Your help is strongly needed, solicited and welcome and can help in making it the last one.
You are conscientiously asked to come to the Blessed Land. Come to the Valley of the Forgotten Human Rights. Come and see the Incubators that are hatching real Game-Changers, come and witness the birth of Innovators, see how Start-Ups join efforts for a noble cause. Appreciate how they nurture these unfolding non-ending generations of honest seekers of Respect. Here are people who recreate themselves, ... every day. Here dwell the new wave of Disruptors of the stale old world. Here takes place the Evolution of the Rights, all natural human rights.
Here, in the "promised" land, the century-old muted Holocaust of Palestinian lives and rights, Palestinians, week after week, for some thirty consecutive Fridays now, struggle to implement U.N.G.A.Res.No.194 of 1948 (not implemented by the so-self-appointed World Powers) which originally confirmed their "Right to Return". Peacefully, repeat peacefully they act, to the "tune" of the Israeli army, trigger-happy and “totally” in "self-defense", murdering them by the tens, week after week, in the blatant absence of any "Elite", let alone official reaction. Please ask the question: why do these youth never give in? or ever give up, decade after decade? Century after..? Come and light a candle inside their Tunnels of Life.
Would you please visit the Pogroms in the only-left officially-recognised Apartheid so-called state in the World, thirty years after the abolition of the concept, its mantra and tools. Try, if allowed, to visit the Gulags in Falastina.
The World's highest instances are immediately urged to:
Stop encouraging violence and shear murder under the title of "Peace".
Even rogue rulers and Rogue Countries are witnessing falls from the state of "Celebrities" to becoming "Influencers" soon to accept to be mere "Followers", and the "Rest" will remain, as usual, common victims completely out of all kinds of screens.
On behalf of the "International Community" which - by the way - has no status, bye-laws, rules and regulations and certainly no quorum, on behalf of them, "we" declare that we are "sick", very soon to be "tired" to see, read and hear about praises to marginal choices and events. Surely your esteemed Institution is in no way asked to comply for "we" call for the forming of a new Organisation that would condemn those behind all atrocities applied upon this world. Condemn I.S.I.S., the main catalyst-reason for writing this letter, considering the plight of Nobel laureate Nadia Murad. Condemn its likes , individuals, organisations or countries. Condemn all their sponsors and benefactors:
"Condemn, do not Condone or you shall Condole"
We call for the forming of a “Nuremberg” to judge the Colonial Powers, colonial in action and sick mind, a court that would judge the responsible for the massacres of Kana (twice) and Jenin. We stand for the creation of an Organisation that would award, every year, such prizes as:
"The most Rogue Country of the Year",
or banner up a:
"Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Who was the Most Evil of them all?".
Surely "Celebrities" like Bush-Blair, "Lies" such as W.M.D. and "Declarations" like Albright's "half a million Iraqi children starved to death was well worth the decision that made them Starve to Death" would be the first Curriculum Vitae to be considered!
I thank you for your patience and kind attention and with all due respect and appreciation, please do accept expressions
of highest consideration.
Hayyan Salim HAIDAR.
17th of October, 2018. Lebanon,
