October 27, 1978
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin are jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts toward bringing about peace between Israel and Egypt through the Camp David Accords. The award is presented in a ceremony Dec. 10, 1978.
The announcement of the award comes a little over a month after the conclusion of the Camp David talks, which lays the foundation for the March 1979 peace treaty between the countries. Some observers believe that the awarding of the prize to Begin and Sadat, before a peace treaty is formally signed, is insurance to make sure that the two leaders do in fact go forward with the talks and conclude them with a treaty.
Begin told the press, “I thank the Nobel Prize Committee for the honor bestowed for our peace effort. … I believe that the negotiations will end successfully. But the prize, given to me even before the successful conclusion, has in fact been given to the entire people of Israel, and I am nothing but the emissary through which the prize has been bestowed upon our people. As I have claimed all my life, no people yearn for peace as we do and surely no more than we do.”
Read more at the Nobel Prize website.
