Protests Erupt Outside Nobel Banquet in Stockholm Over Gaza War, United States-Venezuela Tensions, and Controversial Peace Prize Award

 Stockholm, Sweden – Amid the glittering pomp of the 2025 Nobel Prize ceremonies, a vocal coalition of activists descended on Stockholm City Hall on Wednesday, December 10, to decry Israel’s protracted military campaign in Gaza and the escalating US military buildup near Venezuela, transforming the eve of the Nobel banquet into a flashpoint for global dissent. The demonstration, organized by a loose alliance of Palestinian solidarity groups, Venezuelan expatriate networks, and anti-imperialist collectives, unfolded just as King Carl XVI Gustaf hosted over 1,300 dignitaries inside the iconic venue for the traditional banquet following the daytime award presentations. Waving Palestinian flags and banners emblazoned with slogans like “Stop the Genocide in Gaza” and “Hands Off Venezuela,” the roughly 200 protesters—bundled against the winter chill—chanted their grievances under the watchful eyes of Swedish police, who maintained a cordon to prevent disruptions to the event.

Activists stage a protest against Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip for over two years and the US's preparations for an attack on Venezuela during the traditional Nobel dinner held after the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden on December 10, 2025.

The protest, which began around 5 p.m. local time as limousines ferried laureates and guests to the banquet, highlighted a deepening rift between the Nobel’s aspirational ethos of peace and the geopolitical realities it often intersects. Organizers framed their action as a deliberate juxtaposition to the ceremonies, accusing the Nobel Foundation of complicity in Western hypocrisy. “The Nobel Prizes are funded by the blood money of US imperialism, and tonight’s banquet celebrates that,” read a statement distributed by the group, which lambasted Washington and the European Union for their unwavering support of Israel’s operations in Gaza while turning a blind eye to alleged preparations for aggression against Venezuela. The demonstrators’ ire extended pointedly to the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose award they decried as a “stain on the prize’s legacy.”

Machado’s selection, announced on October 10, 2025, by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, recognized her “steadfast advocacy for democracy” in Venezuela amid the country’s protracted political crisis. The conservative firebrand, barred from the 2024 presidential race by the Maduro regime and subsequently living in hiding, has become a symbol of resistance against President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government, which the US and much of the West deem illegitimate following disputed elections. Yet, her win has ignited fierce backlash from left-leaning and pro-Palestinian circles, who point to her vocal endorsements of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump—figures they accuse of fueling violence in Gaza and saber-rattling toward Caracas.

In an immediate post-announcement X post, Machado dedicated the prize “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause,” a gesture that drew immediate praise from Trump on Truth Social but condemnation from critics as sycophantic. Trump, who had lobbied aggressively for the award himself—citing his role in brokering ceasefires in Gaza and elsewhere—reposted her words without comment. Machado’s ties to Israel further inflamed tensions: shortly after her win, she penned an open letter to Netanyahu, urging him to leverage his influence against Maduro’s “criminal regime,” which she linked to drug trafficking and terrorism. Netanyahu personally congratulated her via phone, a call Machado hailed as a show of “solidarity against authoritarianism.”

The Stockholm protesters amplified these critiques in their statement, portraying Machado as a “warmonger in peace’s clothing” who “welcomes American military intervention in Venezuela while turning a blind eye to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” This echoed broader international outcry: the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) labeled the award “unconscionable,” citing Machado’s affiliations with far-right European figures like Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, and calling for recognition of Gaza’s “brave journalists and activists” instead. Colombian President Gustavo Petro questioned the prize’s impartiality, referencing Machado’s outreach to Netanyahu amid Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has claimed over 70,000 lives since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Gaza component of the protest drew from Israel’s ongoing offensive, now in its third year, which has displaced nearly 2 million Palestinians and drawn accusations of genocide from UN experts and the International Court of Justice. Protesters linked this to US complicity, noting Washington’s $18 billion in military aid to Israel since October 2023 and Trump’s recent brokering of a fragile Gaza ceasefire under his “Comprehensive Plan,” which critics decry as enabling further occupation. Chants of “Stop the genocide in Gaza” resonated as a direct rebuke to the banquet’s opulence, where laureates in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and economics mingled with royalty.

No less urgent were cries against US “preparations for military action” in Venezuela, a flashpoint amplified by Trump’s aggressive posturing since his January 2025 inauguration. Since August, the US has amassed the largest Caribbean naval deployment in decades: the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, three amphibious assault ships, F-35 jets, and 15,000 troops, ostensibly to combat “narcoterrorists” linked to Maduro. Trump has authorized CIA covert ops inside Venezuela and warned of imminent land strikes on “drug gangs and regime targets,” following airstrikes that sank over 80 boats and killed 87 alleged smugglers since September—actions now under bipartisan congressional scrutiny. On November 20, he declared Venezuelan airspace “closed in its entirety,” while seizing a sanctioned oil tanker on December 10 spiked global crude prices by 3%.

Maduro, facing a $50 million US bounty and accusations of election fraud, has mobilized 125,000 troops, acquired Russian Igla-S missiles, and branded the buildup a “war for oil,” vowing asymmetric warfare in Venezuela’s jungles. Analysts warn a ground invasion could devolve into quagmire, costing billions and alienating Latin America, with 70% of Americans opposing intervention per CBS polling. Protesters in Stockholm echoed these fears, viewing Machado’s prize as tacit endorsement of regime-change hawks like Trump.

The demonstration remained peaceful, with no arrests reported, though tensions simmered as banquet guests savored a menu of reindeer, lingonberries, and vintage champagne. Similar actions unfolded in Oslo on December 9, and Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the Peace Prize in her mother’s stead, delivering a speech on “fighting for freedom.” Machado, evading a Venezuelan travel ban and arrest warrant for “terrorism,” arrived in Oslo post-ceremony on December 11, greeting supporters from her Grand Hotel balcony with the national anthem.

As the banquet concluded with laureate speeches and orchestral swells, the protesters dispersed into the snowy night, their voices a stark counterpoint to the Nobel’s gilded narrative. For organizers, the action was a moral imperative: “In Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, or Venezuela, true peace demands rejecting militarism, not rewarding it.” With Trump’s naval armada looming and Gaza’s truce teetering, the Nobel’s halo dims, exposing fractures in a world where peace prizes and protests collide.