Kaare Kristiansen, 85; Quit Nobel Panel Over Peace Prize Shared by Arafat

Kaare Kristiansen, a politician who quit the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in 1994 rather than support an award that included Yasser Arafat, has died. He was 85.

Kristiansen died Saturday, it was reported in Oslo.

He served two terms as leader of the Christian Democratic Party for a total of six years, and was a member of Parliament from 1973 to 1977 and 1981 to 1989. He was also Norwegian oil minister from 1983 until 1986 as part of a center-right coalition.

After he retired from politics and was appointed to the secretive five-member Norwegian committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, he was the center of world attention in a rare public dispute for the honor.

The Palestinian leader shared the 1994 peace prize with then-Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin, as prime minister, and Shimon Peres, as foreign minister, for their 1993 peace pact called the Oslo agreement.

Immediately after the announcement, Kristiansen, a strong supporter of Israel, called his own news conference to say that he was resigning from the committee rather than be party to an award for Arafat.

Kristiansen accused the Palestinian leader of being “tainted with violence, terrorism and bloodshed.”

The Oslo-based committee usually reaches its decision by consensus and has a strong tradition of keeping debate private. No notes are taken, and the names of Nobel candidates are kept secret for 50 years.

The son of a Lutheran pastor, Kristiansen started work for the Norwegian state railroad NSB as an errand boy and worked his way up to become its operations director in 1970.

He was also active in politics, as Christian Democratic youth leader in 1955 and 1956, and as its national deputy leader from 1961. He served in parliament as an alternate delegate in 1969 before being elected in 1973 to represent Oslo.