A Norwegian parliamentarian has nominated Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Jerusalem memorial center is “one of the world’s most significant institutions in the fight against antisemitism, hate ideologies and historical distortion,” Joel Ystebø of Norway’s Christian Democratic Party wrote in a letter addressed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Tuesday.
“I believe that the Nobel committee should take a stand on antisemitism by issuing this award to Yad Vashem even though I understand it might be difficult because of all the politics involved,” Ystebø told JNS on Thursday.
The 24-year-old lawmaker, who was elected last year to the unicameral parliament for the conservative opposition party, noted that every Norwegian lawmaker had the right to nominate a candidate for the prize.
“There are many people in Norway who, like myself, are embarrassed by our own government after October 7 for being too soft on Hamas, and this nomination is also to show the people of Israel and the Jewish community that they have many friends in Norway,” he said in the interview.
He wrote in his letter that antisemitism has proven throughout history to be “one of the most persistent and destructive forms of hatred,” citing the rise in anti-Jewish violence around the globe following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which triggered the two-year war in Gaza.
“Today, Yad Vashem serves as a global anchor in the fight against antisemitism and other forms of hatred,” the letter states. “In a time when antisemitism is once again gaining a foothold in public discourse, Yad Vashem reminds us of what is at stake if hatred and lies are allowed to pervade.
“The Nobel Peace Prize has historically honored those who stand against hatred, oppression and injustice,” it continues. “Yad Vashem does precisely this by being at the forefront of the fight against antisemitism, one of the most serious threats to peaceful coexistence in our time. Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Yad Vashem would be a clear recognition that the struggle against antisemitism is a struggle for peace, democracy and human dignity.”
Tel Aviv University Professor Dina Porat, a Yad Vashem senior academic adviser, told JNS, “We are witness today to how hatred caused by antisemitism is again ever so relevant to our very time. By its documentation and commemoration, Yad Vashem offers a clear historical picture and warning about the past and the present.”
Founded in 1953 on Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance, on the western slope of Mount Herzl, to commemorate the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, Yad Vashem has emerged as a top global tourist site for visitors and educators.
