Israeli activist Daniella Weiss nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Weiss currently leads Nahala, a movement advocating for the re-establishment of Jewish communities in Gaza.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Daniella Weiss, a key Israeli activist in Judea and Samaria, has been nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

Professors Amos Azaria of Ariel University and Shalom Sadik of Ben-Gurion University submitted her candidacy, citing her decades-long efforts in strengthening Jewish communities and promoting regional stability.

The establishment of Jewish communities has prevented violence and enhanced security, they argued in a letter to the Nobel Prize Committee in Norway.

“While there is a significant Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, in Gaza – where the Jews were displaced in the 2005 disengagement – thousands of Jewish deaths and tens of thousands of Arab deaths were recorded. In Judea and Samaria, on the other hand, the figures are significantly lower, illustrating how the settlement, led by Weiss, was a factor in settlement that in practice prevented friction and large-scale wars,” Azaria and Sadik wrote.

Weiss, now 79, was a long-time active member of Gush Emunim, a religious-political movement founded in 1974 following the Yom Kippur War. She later served as the first mayor of Kedumim in northern Samaria from 1996-2007.

“Weiss’s activities strengthened security and stability, and as a result, contributed to reducing bloodshed in the region,” the letter added.

She currently leads Nahala, a movement advocating for the re-establishment of Jewish communities in Gaza.

According to the Nobel Prize website, 244 individuals and 94 organizations have been nominated for the annual Peace Prize. The names of the winners will be announced in October.

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978 for bringing about the Camp David Accords.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres shared the prize with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat in 1994 for the Oslo Accords.

Since then, there have been multiple attempts to rescind Arafat’s prize over his continued support for terror. The Nobel Prize Committee has rejected the requests, saying there is no precedent for revoking the prize.

The Nobel Prize also honors achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Economic Sciences. The awards are given out on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.