In Oct.14 , The Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway, announced that the peace prize was being awarded to Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and to Yasser Arafat ,leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The award came one year after a peace agreement was signed between Israel and the PLO following decades of mutual hostility and violence. There was some controversy among members of the committee making the award: committee member Kare Kristiansen resigned, saying Arafat's violent past should have disqualified him from receiving the award.