Ramallah - 10/15/2012

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) sent today congratulatory letter to the representative of the European Union in Jerusalem, Mr. John Gat Ritter in the  occasion of Union  winning of Nobel Peace Prize, and  has expressed his wishes to the peoples of the member states of the Union of further progress and prosperity.

The general director of the Center Mousa Rimawi said  in the letter: We seize this opportunity to emphasize that the region and our Palestinian people in particular in dire need of peace, which is long overdue as our people  is still suffering from Israel's continued occupation of its territory since 1967, depriving him of the simplest rights which is blatantly violated daily, including the right to freedom of expression and the repeated attacks on journalists and the media. 

He added “ MADA stressed repeatedly that without the removal of the occupation, it  is difficult to talk about a dramatic drop in the attacks of the Israeli occupation forces and settlers on journalists, which pose a threat to their lives and cause them physical and psychological suffering, and prevent them from doing  their professional duty”.

Rimawi said : the Union winning of  the prize is  an important opportunity to play a bigger role in order to realize peace in the Middle East, and for linking his policies to the cause of human rights in pursuance of a decision  adopted by the Council of Foreign Affairs in the Union in  25.6.2012 (strategic framework on human rights and democracy with action plan for the implementation of the strategy on the ground, and the inclusion of human rights in all EU policies to promote the universality of human rights), where the linking EU policies, and other countries relations with Israel  commitment to respect human rights will be important and necessary step in order to compel Israel government to respect international conventions on human rights and freedom of expression in particular