95bFM Is there an ulterior motive to Netanyahu’s nomination of Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize?
28 July, 2025
Interview by Joel Armstrong, adapted by Vihan Dalal. Image: Nobel Peace Center (2009) - Wikimedia Commons
At the beginning of this month, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he would nominate US President, Donald Trump, for a Nobel Peace Prize.
This follows Pakistan nominating him in June for his “decisive diplomatic intervention” following the escalation of violence between the nation and India.
Trump has previously been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a group of Republicans in 2018, as well as by a right-wing Norwegian lawmaker in 2021, for normalising relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
However, Tom Wilkinson, a PhD History Candidate at the University of Auckland, told 95bFM’s The Wire that Netanyahu’s nomination is a political ploy.
“It's perhaps a way of Netanyahu trying to get Trump's support for [Netanyahu’s] goals, the continued invasion and occupation of Gaza, and the plans that Israel has laid out to force Palestinians into a camp in the ruins of Gafar.
“It's one of those issues where it's perhaps not so much a serious attempt to get Trump a peace prize, but instead an attempt to get Trump's support for whatever policies Netanyahu wants to pursue in Gaza at this point in time.”
Wilkinson says the Nobel Peace Prize has had a history of controversial nominations and recipients. Henry Kissinger’s nomination in 1973 was seen by many as controversial at the time, as the peace agreement in Vietnam was seen as fragile.
He adds that Barack Obama’s presidency was marked by an increase in US drone strikes in the Middle East following his Nobel Prize award in 2009.
Wilkinson believes this year’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony could be protested due to Netanyahu’s nomination.
“I do think there may be some [protests], but it kind of depends on how seriously this nomination is taken at the end of the day. If it begins to look like Trump may actually receive it, or if other states or politicians come out and nominate him.”
