Brussels, 11/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - Socialist group MEPs Pasqualina Napolitano (Italy), Véronique De Keyser (Belgium) and Carlos Carnero Gonzalez (Spain) have called on Israel immediately to free “Doctor Hassan Khrreische, deputy chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) policy committee, whose arrest by the Israeli army is in flagrant violation of international law and a provocation towards the European Union”. The three MEPs also called on Hamas to free Corporal Shalit, “whose detention is feeding the resurgence in fighting in the region”.
In a press release, the MEPs state that the arrest of democratically elected members of the Palestinian Authority by the Israeli army was “unjustifiable and illegal” and that it “only increases the tension”, with serious consequences “for peace and democracy”.
They also call on the Israeli government “in the name of international law”, to release without delay the five members of the Belgian Artistes contre le mur (“Artists against the wall”) association, “known and supported for its actions for peace and the protection of culture in Palestine”.