Belgian lawmakers nominate Barghouti for Nobel Peace Prize

Belgium lawmakers from across the political spectrum and from both the Senate and House of Representatives nominate jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti for the Nobel Peace Prize.

According to the Palestine News Network, a letter from the lawmakers to the Nobel committee states: “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’s rights. 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… Peace requires the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi 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.”

Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences for murder in an Israeli jail for his role in terror attacks during the Second Intifada. Palestinian activists have been campaigning for his nomination for a Nobel since April.