We begin with this year’s Nobel Prize for Peace. As veteran peace activist Joseph Gerson observes, “the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo is long overdue and could not come at a more important time. . . the U.S. has used its nuclear arsenal in the same way that an armed robber uses his gun when pointed at his victim’s head. Whether or not the trigger is pulled, the gun has been used. Tragically, this is playbook with which the Russian government has been working from with its Ukraine-war nuclear threats.”

The leader of Nihon Hidankyo, Mimaki, echoed these concerns: “It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists. For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won’t end there. Politicians should know these things.” Mimaki added, “I am not sure I will be alive next year. Please abolish nuclear weapons while we are alive. That is the wish of 114,000 hibakusha.” Nihon Hidankyo represents he hibakusha who are the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Mimaki did not stop there with his remarks. He addressed the genocide of Israel against the Palestinians. ““In Gaza, bleeding children are being held [by their parents]. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago.” He said he had believed “the people working so hard in Gaza” would be awarded the Peace Prize, referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which was also nominated for the Nobel prize.

The winners of two other prizes this month addressed the Israeli genocide and called for peace.

Han Kang, the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in literature, declined to hold a press conference to celebrate the prize that she was awarded last month. She cited the global tragedies of the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Palestine conflict. ‘With the war intensifying and people being carried out dead every day, how can we have a celebration or a press conference?’

And Arundhati Roy, in accepting the prestigious Pinter Prize awarded by English PEN for literature, dedicated her remarks to the“televised genocide in Gaza and now Lebanon in defence of a colonial occupation and an Apartheid state”

“Describing the fatalities of over 42000 lives including women and children, Roy stated the US and Europe have prepared the ground for another situation to assuage their collective guilt for their early years of indifference towards one genocide—the Nazi extermination of millions of European Jews.

“Hostilities could end right this minute. Israeli hostages could be freed, and Palestinian prisoners could be released. The negotiations with Hamas and the other Palestinian stakeholders that must inevitably follow the war could instead take place now and prevent the suffering of millions of people. . .

“The war that has now begun will be terrible. But it will eventually dismantle Israeli Apartheid. The whole world will be far safer for everyone – including for Jewish people – and far more just. It will be like pulling an arrow from our wounded heart,” the award winning author said, underscoring that the war could stop today if the US government withdrew its support of Israel.

The PEN Prize awardee concluded her speech expressing her conviction that From the river to the sea Palestine will be Free.