Top 10 Controversial Nobel Peace Prize Winners
Published on October 17, 2007 - 41 Comments
The Nobel Peace Prize was created by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Nobel asked that the prize be awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. This, unfortunately, has not always been the case. Here are the ten most controversial recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize:
10. Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter’s 2002 Nobel Peace Prize—awarded for the “decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”—had from the start wrought controversy that was exacerbated further by politically-tinted statements offered by the chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee (seconded and affirmed by Gunnar Staalsett, another member of the 5-member, secretive Nobel Committee).
9. Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai, 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, created controversy by appearing to lend credibility to the theory that HIV was invented by white scientists to destroy black people but later apologized for giving the illusion of being a conspiracy theorist.
8. Al Gore
Al Gore won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on raising public awareness of Global Warming. There has been some contention on whether the work was related to the stated purpose of the prize or not. In addition, there is much controversy surrounding his work in the area of Global Warming and, in fact, even controversy over whether Global Warming poses a real threat to mankind. Recently a UK High Court judge decreed that the government could only send a copy of “An Inconvenient Truth” to every school if it was accompanied by guidelines to point out “nine scientific errors” and to counter his “one-sided views”. In his film, Al Gore called on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home. In August 2006, Gore’s electricity bills revealed that in one month he burned through 22,619 kilowatts - more than twice what the average family uses in an entire year.
7. Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. There has been some evidence pointing to her as a fraud in her purported autobiography of her life in Guatemala in the late 1950s, portrayed in her 1987 book I, Rigoberta Menchu—where some facts regarding her family history and circumstances were specifically altered by her to supposedly better propagandize her leftist-leanings (brought to light through exposé by anthropologist David Stoll’s researches).
6. Henry Kissinger
Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his work on the Vietnam Peace Accords, despite having instituted the secret 1969–1975 campaign of bombing against infiltraiting NVA in Cambodia, the alleged U.S. involvement in Operation Condor—a mid-1970s campaign of kidnapping and murder coordinated among the intelligence and security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay—as well as the death of French nationals under the Chilean junta. He also supported the invasion of Cyprus resulting in approximately 1/3 of the island being occupied by foreign troops for 33 years. Some peace activists go so far as to suggest that the Nobel Peace Prize has become irrelevant due to Kissinger being a laureate.
5. Yitzhak Rabin
Rabin won the prize jointly with Shimon Peres and Yasser Araft in 1994. Rabin, while in the Israeli military, had ordered the expulsion of Arabs, from areas captured by Israel during the 1948 War. He had also been responsible for the aggressive Israeli crackdown of the First Intifada while Defense Minister. Rabin also continued to authorise the construction of settlements in the occupied territories despite the peace agreement.
4. Shimon Peres
Awarded the prize jointly with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, Peres was responsible for developing Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal, and was later blamed for the Qana Massacre. The Qana Massacre occurred in 1996 when the Israeli military shelled a villiage of 800 Lebanese civilians who had gone there to escape the fighting. 106 were killed and around 116 others injured. Four Fijian United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon soldiers were also seriously injured.
3. Yasser Arafat
Arafat won the 1994 prize along with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. Arafat was regarded by critics as a terrorist leader for many years. Kåre Kristiansen, a Norwegian member of the Nobel Committee, resigned in 1994 in protest at the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to Yasser Arafat, whom he labeled a “terrorist”.
2. Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace in 1945 in recognition of his efforts for peace and understanding in the Western Hemisphere, his trade agreements, and his work to establish the United Nations. In 1939, the ship SS St Louis sailed out of Hamburg into the Atlantic Ocean carrying over 950 Jewish refugees, mostly wealthy, seeking asylum from Nazi persecution just before World War II. Roosevelt showed modest willingness to allow the ship in, but Hull, his Secretary of State threaten to withhold their support of Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election if this occurred. Roosevelt denied entry to the ship. The ship was forced to return to Germany and many of the passengers ultimately ended up dying in Concentration Camps.
1. Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin (6th Prime Minister of Israel) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for his contributions to the successful closure to the Camp David Accords in the same year (the award was jointly given to Begin and Anwar Sadat). Unfortunately, Begin had also previously been head of the militant Zionist group Irgun, which is often regarded as a terrorist organization and had been responsible for the King David Hotel bombing in 1946.
Final Thoughts
While the controversial people listed above enjoy (or enjoyed) their Nobel Peace prizes, Mahatma Gandhi was never awarded one (though he was nominated five times). In addition, in the fields of science, great men such as Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison were not awarded prizes because of their animosity towards each other. If Tesla had won, the money would probably have prevented him from filing for bankruptcy in 1916, and the face of modern society may have been very different.
This article is licensed under the GFDL. It uses material from the Wikipedia articles: Qana Massacre, and Nobel Prize Controversies
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1. kancgab - October 17th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Nice list.
Al Gore really is a moron. In his book “Earth in the Balance” he wrote:
“We learned, for example, that in some areas of Poland, children are regularly taken underground into deep mines to gain some respite from the buildup of gases and pollution of all sorts in the air. One can almost imagine their teachers emerging tentatively from the mine, carrying canaries to warn the children when it’s no longer safe for them to stay above the ground.”
WTF is that? I’m form Poland and believe me, there is NOTHING true in this… story.
He smokes too much crack, I suppose :/
2. evan - October 17th, 2007 at 5:54 am
i love how supposed earth friendly people like al gore, drive hybrids and preach to us to be more like them, then they get into their private jet and cause more pollution in one day then my car does in a month. and then like you posted Gore’s electricity bills revealed that in one month he burned through 22,619 kilowatts - more than twice what the average family uses in an entire year. Such BS.
3. jfrater - October 17th, 2007 at 6:06 am
kancgab: haha that is so ridiculous! I can’t believe he would write that in a book.
evan: the electricity thing is pretty disgusting I think.
4. dalandzadgad - October 17th, 2007 at 6:19 am
this is a politically charged list.
al gore’s double standards are irritating, plus it’s too soon to award him a nobel.
and about kissinger, i agree, the nobel “peace” prize seems irrelevant with him on the list.
5. jfrater - October 17th, 2007 at 7:43 am
dalandzadgad: I agree about timing - they need to wait at least a few years to see what the real situation is with things like Global Warming.
6. JOE ROSSON - October 17th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Tesla has been screwed over so many times it aint funny. He is the true man behind electricity.
7. Joe Skepsis - October 17th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Arghh!
I was making a list of this concept, I was going to submit it tonight.
Arghhhh.
Back to the drawing board.
“Some peace activists go so far as to suggest that the Nobel Peace Prize has become irrelevant due to Kissinger being a laureate.”
^ I am a member of this party.
8. jfrater - October 17th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Joe Skepsis: oh - someone mentioned in on another list last night which is why I decided to do it! What bad timing!
Joe Rosson: I totally agree!
9. Juggz - October 17th, 2007 at 10:00 am
considering Nobel pioneered dynamite i don’t personally see how anyone can use his namesake for a peace prize.
10. idlareg - October 17th, 2007 at 11:22 am
the nobel peace prize is completely worthless, both in physical and symbolic value. i’m sure it has had some(possibly great) value in years past, but this list goes far in illustrating its complete and obvious irrelevance. Besides Menchu, Maathai, Carter, and (too a slightly lesser extent) Gore, the individuals on this list did nothing to better or progress humanity; rather, in a bizzare sense of irony, they specifically damaged/hurt it. The nobel prize is shitkicking politics like everything else.
11. bucslim - October 17th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Kissenger was a murderous thug, and Al Gore is a hypicritical ass clown. OK, I’m not George Bush’s biggest fan, but I have a distinct feeling we’d be worse off if Gore was chosen by the court. They should name it the Nobel Double Standard Prize for Dorkwads and give the winners tootsie pops. Hard candy shell covering a gooey turd in the middle because that’s exactly what these guys are.
12. Hannah - October 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
bucslim- ROFL! I totally agree!
What I found most fascinating about Jimmy Carter’s win was one of the Nobel Prize committee members saying that it was given to him as criticism of Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Now that’s a reason to give out the Nobel Prize! (note the sarcasm)
13. deadhand13 - October 17th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Yeesh, given some of these reasons we should just give Bush a medal too! After all Iraqi Freedom is technically about spreading freedom and democracy in Iraq right?! Bloody idiots.
14. SUN - October 17th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I may be unfamiliar with specifics on these nominees, but wasnt the controvesy of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres that they look like they were separated at birth?
15. Fe - October 17th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Juggz, the story goes that when Alfred Nobel’s brother died, Alfred Nobel’s obit was printed instead of his brother’s and it listed his major accomplishment as being the invention of dynamite.
Nobel realized he did not want his lasting contribution to the world to be the creation of such dangerous and destructive substance, so he used the money he gained from the sale of his recipe (to the US Army) to create the Nobel Peace Prize. I guess you could call it penance.
16. Chris - October 17th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I think the uproar over Riggobertu Menchu is besides the point. Her book could be complete fiction for what it matters, all she did was draw attention to the fact that since the 50’s the guatemalan mayan poulation were being systematically executed and this continued up until the early 90’s. And as for wangari maathai, there actually is some pretty strong evidence that aids may have been accidentally created by european scientists as a corrupted polio vaccine that was tested in africa in the 50’s. Of course they weren’t trying to kill black people, but they were testing drugs on them.
17. jfrater - October 17th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Chris: do you have any more info on the AIDS thing? I would be quite interested to read further on that.
18. jfrater - October 17th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
SUN: haha
Fe: Thanks for adding that - that story is true indeed.
19. Jonas - October 18th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Can anybody explain me why is the article so biased? And you can see that in style of writing , specially on Peres. There the autor says “Peres made the israeli nuclear arsenal”, like it is a PROVEN fact, but on Arafat, he says that “SOME PEOPLE clamed he is a terrorist”, washing his hands (cause it is not proven fact that Arafat, for example, ordered the killings in 1st intifada) and wanting to diminish that. You eather write the same for all, or do not write!
20. jfrater - October 18th, 2007 at 2:38 am
Jonas: I am sorry you feel that way. You are welcome to write a list of your own and submit it to me for possible inclusion on the site. Contribute to Listverse. Oh - and for the record, I considered Arafat to be scum as well - not just Peres.
21. Juggz - October 18th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Fe: A penance doesn’t change the fact in my opinion.
22. Sam - October 20th, 2007 at 2:10 am
in the last part of this list.. #1 Menachem Begin .. in the third line you’ve mentioned this: (the award was jointly given to Begin and Answar Sadat).. his name is [ Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat ] not Answer.. former Egyptian president.. please correct this, Thanks
23. jfrater - October 20th, 2007 at 2:38 am
Sam: I didn’t notice the typo - thanks. It is now corrected.
24. Chris - November 14th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
There’s a book by Edward Hooper called “The River,” that explains the whole AIDS from polio vaccine theory and plenty of other related material on the web. As far as I can tell this idea has since been proven wrong, although there’s plenty of debate on both sides of the case.
25. Csimmons - December 18th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I think Al Gore got the peace prize for saying something we all know, Its getting hotter. If he can get a prize for saying that i’ll get one for this,” Don’t drink the worm in the tequilla bottle especially if you’re in Cancun.”
26. tarheel - December 23rd, 2007 at 7:26 pm
To Csimmons- You said that Al Gore got the peace prize for saying something we all know, but a lot of people would not know what a problem global warming really is if it were not for him. For example young people and people who do not watch news. You should not expect everyone to be as smart as you probably think that you are. I want to know who you think should have got it instead of him.
27. sashikanta ray - January 14th, 2008 at 8:50 am
now i know………
why i m not illigible to compete with these people ?
thanx to God …. i m not involve in in war.
to get this prize u most have to creat a problem then u need to solve it….now metter how u r going to solve it…… who care … at list noble commeettee …………
sorry im not going to get this prize in rest of my life
thanks…….
this infermation is an eye opener
28. nowimthatguy - January 18th, 2008 at 4:55 am
tarheel: How about Irena Sendler. She was a 2007 nominee who helped save 2500 Jewish children from nazis during WWII. Call me crazy but I think a woman who risked her life to save kids from torture or death deserves the prize more than a guy who exploits “global warming.” Also, i think schools are doing a pretty good job on the subject without Gore Bono-ing his way into the picture. He is a parrot, and by no means earned this award by blabbing on his soapbox. O, and i believe his 22,619 kilowatt electricity bill was mentioned? …..hypocrite
29. Mount Teetar - January 23rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
In the final thoughts you failed to mention that before gandhi was “the peacemaster” he actually supported the british army, he also allowed his wife to die because he wouldnt let her take pennecillin, then took medicine for his own conditions. He also went on a hunger strike to protest the abolition of the caste system, what a freakin froot loop. Edison was also an idea thief with a major inferiority complex for Tesla. He had his thugs burn down Tesla’s lab at one point, and then had many of Tesla’s patents repressed. Edison was a monkey banging a rock on the wall or a cave compared to tesla.
30. Mount Teetar - January 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Lol I love how the fact that Gore uses a lot of energy has some percieved affect on global warming. As if to say” well since gore is a hypocite, then global warming must not be true”. Who cares if he is a hypocrite, even if he wasn’t fat,lazy,stupid fucks still wouldn’t get their fat ass off the couch and turn of the TV anyway.
31. nowimthatguy - January 25th, 2008 at 3:19 am
It has nothing to do with whether global warming is real; or my fat, lazy ass. It is about whether the guy deserves a nobel prize. The answer is no.
32. Csimmons - January 27th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
tarheel: well Im not sure who else should have gotten it, but still, a majority of people knew it was getting hotter, all you had to do was turn the news, I mean it was brought up constantly during the summer.
33. Hotcut3 - February 29th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Here is some people that could have gotten the prize instead of Gore-a good choice-Bono
34. Rolad - March 1st, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Even Hitler had a nomination for the Peace Prize.
35. Ghidoran - March 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Alfred Noble invented dynamite
36. warningdontreadthis - April 11th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Nr 4 and 5 look alot like each other xD
37. Brian Carlson - April 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Henry Kissinger should be tried for war crimes. His innocence or guilt could be determined by an international tribunal. Certainly his nod to the methods and agenda of those conducting the Argentine “Dirty War” should be a matter of broad public knowledge. Americans need to know what this countries foreign policies have been and are, and may then judge as to whether or not our image internationally can be rescued and gradually revised by politicians who have agendas of real peace, cooperation and accord.
38. gavon - September 22nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
add nobel peace prizes to the military code of honors