Nobel Laureates and Local MEPs call for Justice
A North West Euro-MP is amongst 88 parliamentarians and 63 Nobel prize winners calling for the immediate release of Middle East prisoners.
Chris Davies says that Palestinian supporters of Hamas should free captured Israeli sergeant Gilad Shalit. He wants Israel to release hundreds of Palestinians, many of them held for years without trial.
The Liberal Democrat MEP has in the past tried to visit elected Palestinian legislators held in an Israeli jail, and has also met with the father of Gilad Shalit.
He said: "Israel holds 10,000 Palestinians, while Hamas holds one Israeli soldier, but justice is not served if even one person is denied their freedom and used as a bargaining chip."
Text of Open the Doors press release from 63 Nobel Laureates, 88 MEPs, 114 former MEPs and 8 authors.
Open the Doors Campaign
Israel must end the Gaza blockade, end all killings, and enable Gaza to open to the world, so as to guarantee the possibility of a viable economy, and improve the humanitarian situation.
The Palestinians must end all rocket attacks against Israel and the Israelis.
Human beings are not bargaining chips.
Accordingly : the Palestinians must free Sergeant Gilad Shalit, whom they have held prisoner for three years now.
The Israelis, who hold some ten thousand Palestinian prisoners in their jails, must urgently release a significant group of women prisoners, sick persons, the eldest and longest-serving among them, along with those held under administrative detention and other arbitrary procedures – including all the elected members of Palestinian legislature.
Supported by :
63 Nobel Laureates
11 Peace Nobel Laureates : Bishop Carlos Belo, President Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, John Hume, Mairead Maguire, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Cora Weiss (UN Representative for IPB), Betty Williams, Jody Williams
20 Chemistry Nobel Laureates : Peter Agre, Paul Berg, Thomas Cech, Elias Corey, Robert Curl, Johann Deisenhofer, Manfred Eigen, Richard Ernst, John Fenn, Herbert Hauptman, Alan Heeger, Dudley Herschbach, Roald Hoffmann, Robert Huber, Sir Aaron Klug, Sir Harold Kroto, Yuan T. Lee, Jean-Marie Lehn, William Lipscomb, Jens Skou
16 Medicine Nobel Laureates : Baruj Benacerraf, Günter Blobel, Arvid Carlsson, Christian de Duve, Martin Evans, Edmond Fischer, Roger Guillemin, Louis Ignarro, François Jacob, Eric Kandel, Erwin Neher, Marshall Nirenberg, Paul Nurse, Richard Roberts, E. Donnall Thomas, Torsten Wiesel
11 Physics Nobel Laureates : Zhores Alferov, Albert Fert, Donald Glaser, John Hall, Brian Josephson, Tony Leggett, Douglas Osheroff, Jack Steinberger, Gerardus ‘t Hooft, Daniel Tsui, Martinus Veltman
Literature Nobel Laureates : Dario Fo, Elfriede Jelinek, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka
Economics Nobel Laureate : James Mirrlees
88 Members of European Parliament
Sharon Bowles, Chris Davies, Bairbre de Brún, Andrew Duff, Jill Evans, Malcolm Harbour, Sajjad Karim, Jean Lambert, Caroline Lucas, Elizabeth Lynne, David Martin, Linda McAvan, Claude Moraes, Bill Newton Dunn, Alyn Smith, Diana Wallis (Vice President of the EP) (UK)
Ivo Belet, Frieda Brepoels, Jean-Luc Dehaene (former Prime Minister), Véronique de Keyser (Head of the Observers' Mission for Legislative Elections in Palestine & Vice President of the Work Task on the Middle-East), Saïd El Khadraoui, Mathieu Grosch, Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, Bart Staes, Dirk Sterckx (Belgium)
Kader Arif, Françoise Castex, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Harlem Désir, Hélène Flautre, Elisabeth Morin, Tokia Saïfi, Bernadette Vergnaud (France)
Liam Aylward, Brian Crowley, Proinsias de Rossa, Marian Harkin, Jim Higgins, Mairead McGuinness, Gay Mitchell (Ireland)
Alexander Alvaro, Michael Cramer, Evelyne Gebhardt, Rebecca Harms, Heide Rühle, Gabriele Zimmer (Germany)
Maria Badia i Cutchet, Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez (Vice President of the EP), Emilio Menéndez del Valle, Willy Meyer Pleite, Raül Romeva i Rueda (Spain)
Richard Falbr, Jaromir Kohlicek, Jiri Mastalka, Miloslav Ransdorf, Vladimir Remek (Czech Republic)
Göran Färm, Anna Hedh, Carl Schlyter, Eva-Britt Svensson, Åsa Westlund (Sweden)
Laima Liucija Andrikiene, Eugenijus Gentvilas, Vytautas Landsbergis, Justas Vincas Paleckis (Lithuania)
Edite Estrela, Ana Maria Gomes, Ilda Figueiredo, Miguel Portas (Portugal)
Ioannis Kasoulides, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides (President, Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Parliament) (Cyprus)
Adam Gierek, Tadeusz Zwiefka (Poland)
Emine Bozkurt, Kartika Tamara Liotard (Netherlands)
Cristian Silviu Busoi, Renate Weber (Romania)
Satu Hassi, Sirpa Pietikäinen (Finland)
Jelko Kacin, Alojz Peterle (Slovenia)
Margrete Auken, Soren Sondergaard (Denmark)
Vittorio Prodi (Italy)
Tatjana Zdanoka (Latvia)
Claude Turmes (Luxembourg)
Árpád Duka-Zólyomi (Slovakia)
Louis Grech (Malta)
114 Former Members of the European Parliament
Catherine Boursier, Madeleine Jouye de Grandmaison, Nicole Fontaine (former President of the European Parliament), Jean-Paul Gauzès, Marie Anne Isler Béguin, Anne Laperrouze, Alain Lipietz, General Philippe Morillon, Gérard Onesta (Vice President of the EP), Béatrice Patrie, Martine Roure, Margie Sudre, Francis Wurtz (France)
Angelika Beer, Hildrud Breyer, André Brie, Milan Horácek, Gisela Kallenbach, Jo Leinen, Helmut Markov, Cem Özdemir, Tobias Pflüger, Horst Posdorf, Frithjof Schmidt, Feleknas Uca, Sahra Wagenknecht (Germany)
Vittorio Agnoletto, Giuletto Chiesa, Fabio Ciani, Luigi Cocilovo (Vice President of the EP), Monica Frassoni, Donata Gottardi, Umberto Guidoni (astronaut), Sepp Kusstatscher, Luisa Morgantini (Vice President of the EP), Pasqualina Napoletano (Italy)
Philippe Busquin, Giovanna Corda, Gérard Deprez, Mia de Vits (Quaestor), Alain Hutchinson, Pierre Jonckheer, Johan Van Hecke, Anne Van Lancker (Belgium)
Barbara Dührkop Dührkop, Josep Borrell Fontelles, Juan Fraile Cantón, Vicente Miguel Garcés Ramón, Martí Grau i Segú, Ignasi Guardans Cambó, David Hammerstein, Mikel Irujo Amezaga (Spain)
Dorette Corbey, Jan Cremers, Elly de Groen, Lily Jacobs, Joost Lagendijk, Jules Maaten, Erik Meijer, Jan Marinus Wiersma (Netherlands)
Costas Botopoulos, Giorgios Dimitrakopoulos, Dimitris Papadimoulis, Antonios Trakatellis, Nikolaos Vakalis, Ioannis Varvitsiotis (Greece)
Jan Andersson, Hélène Goudin, Jens Holm, Maria Robsahm, Inger Segelström, Anders Wijkman (Sweden)
Colm Burke, Avril Doyle, Mary Lou McDonald, Sean O Neachtain, Eoin Ryan, Kathy Sinnott Eire
Arunas Degutis, Jolanta Dickuté, Gintaras Didžiokas, Eugenijus Maldeikis, Aloyzas Sakalas (Lithuania)
Adamos Adamou, Panayiotis Demetriou, Marios Matsakis, Yiannakis Matsis (Cyprus)
Vera Flasarová, Daniel Strož, Tomas Zatloukal, Jaroslav Zverina (Czech Republic)
Maria da Assunção Esteves, Armando França, Jamila Madeira (Portugal)
Urszula Krupa, Wieslaw Stefan Kuc, Leopold Rutozicz (Poland)
Christopher Beazley, John Bowis, John Purvis (U.K.)
Gabriela Cretu, Magor Imre Csibi (Romania)
Piia-Noora Kauppi, Reino Paasilinna (Finland)
Mihael Brejc, Mojca Drcar Murko (Slovenia)
Harald Ettl, Karin Resetarits (Austria)
Johannes Lebech (Denmark)
Guntars Krasts (former Prime Minister of Latvia)
Erna Hennicot-Schoepges (Luxembourg)
Mariela Velichkova Baeva (Bulgaria)
Magda Kósáné Kovács (Hungary)
Toomas Savi (Estonia)
Authors
Noëlle Châtelet, Yasmina Khadra, Franca Rame, Noam Chomsky, Martin Gray (survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto), David Grossman, Amos Oz, Michel Rocard (former Prime Minister)
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