A campaign to have arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize took another step on Wednesday, as leading Belgian Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum announced their nomination of Barghouti.
According to the Palestine News Network website, the signatories of the letter of nomination include Gwenaëlle Grovonius, President of the bilateral section Belgium-Palestine of the Belgian group to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Dirk Vandermaelen, President of the External Relations Committee, Vincent Van Quickenborne, President of the Social Affairs Committee, Jean-Marc Delizée, President of the Economy Committee, Benoit Hellings, Vice-President of the National Defence Committee, and Senators Piet De Bruyn and Nadia El Yousfi.
“Marwan is an elected representative of the Palestinian nation, and was the first parliamentarian to be arrested…He is a democrat defending Human rights, notably women rights,” the letter says, according to the report.
“He was actively engaged in the promotion of political and religious pluralism, and as such he is an important actor for the future of a region more fragmented than ever,” the letter claims, adding that “[p]eace requires the freedom of Marwan Barghouti and of the political prisoners, and more generally the freedom of the Palestinian people living for decades under occupation.”
“By granting the Nobel Peace Prize to the one who embodies the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, but also their aspiration to achieve peace, a leader that can unite Palestinians around a political project that clearly includes a two-state solution on 1967 borders, more threatened than ever by colonization and the absence of a political horizon, the Committee for the Nobel Prize would help resurrect the indispensable hope to go out of the current impasse,” the Belgian lawmakers say.
Barghouti is in an Israeli jail serving five life sentences for his role in planning suicide terror attacks in Israel, primarily during the Second Intifada between 2000 and 2005. He is widely perceived as a popular choice to replace Mahmoud Abbas, whose term in office expired several years ago, as Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman.
The arch-terrorist is considered one of the founders of Tanzim, one of Fatah’s armed terrorist factions.
Barghouti has continued to exert great influence within the Fatah party even from prison. Likewise he has been visited by Arab MKs, and has sought presidency of the PA from jail.
The nomination by leading Belgian parliamentarians is the third nomination of Marwan Barghouti to the Nobel Peace Prize this year, Palestine News Network reported.
Argentinian artist Adolfo Perez Esquivel was the first to nominate him in January 2016. The second nomination came as a result of a unanimous decision of the Arab Parliament.
