Kushner’s Middle East deals earned him the nod of a pro-Israel attorney while Abrams was recognized for voter registration.
Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Georgian politician and voter suppressionist Stacey Abrams were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, and former Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, were welcomed Sunday by lawyer Alan Dershowitz for their role in negotiating four normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco nominated.
These pacts are known as the “Abraham Accords” and in some cases, for example with the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, according to observers, formalize existing relations. They paved the way for a large arms deal with the UAE that has been heavily criticized by lawmakers.
Trump himself is nominated for the Peace Prize. President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to review all national security deals made during the Trump administration, including arms packages for the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Abrams’ work has been credited with increasing the turnout last year and helping Biden win the US presidency.
“Abrams’ work follows in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the struggle for equality before the law and civil rights,” said Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party member in the Norwegian Parliament, as he announced their nomination.
Former Georgia Governor Stacey Abrams speaks at a rally for then Democratic Vice-Presidential Candidate Senator Kamala Harris on Nov. 1 in Duluth, Georgia [File: John Bazemore/Ap Photo]Black people in the US have long been ballot box hurdles, but Abrams’ group Fair Fight worked to register thousands and raised $ 100 million after failing to run for governor of Georgia in 2018.
Abrams claimed she lost the election due to voter suppression and is expected to start another run in 2022. Their work has inspired rival Republican strategists to organize against their efforts.
Republicans connected with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced a group called “Stop Stacey” to investigate Abram’s “seedy” voter registration efforts.
The group’s senior strategist, Jeremy Brand, said in a statement: “We will do everything we can to expose Stacey Abrams’ radical network, highlight their dangerous agenda and ultimately defeat them – and their leftist candidates – at the ballot box.”
Other candidates this year are the Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, the World Health Organization and the climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
The American Black Lives Matter movement, Daniel Ellsberg, who published the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War, and WikiLeaks were nominated, as were activists for democracy and civil rights from Belarus to Poland and Hungary.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which decides who will win the award, does not comment on nominations, but the nominees can disclose their choices.
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