According to reports in Palestinian media, the Tunisia Human Rights League has given its most prestigious prize, the "Peace Prize," to murderer Marwan Barghouti.
Barghouti is serving five life terms for his organizing terror attacks as leader of Fatah's Tanzim, including one attack at a seafood restaurant in Tel Aviv in 2002.
The so-called Human Rights League gave the award to his wife Fadwa, according to numerous Palestinian reports.
The ceremony was attended by major Palestinian figures including Issa Qaraqe, Minister of Prisoners' Affairs. Arab ambassadors also attended, according to the Palestinian media.
Tunisia Human Rights League president Fadhel Moussa spoke about how there can be no peace in the world without peace in Palestine.
None of the coverage I've read shows that anyone said a word about what Marwan Barghouti ever did to create or promote peace. In fact, based on news coverage of the event, no one seems to have spoken about his life at all; the award appears to have been given to him as a means to express support for Palestinian opponents of Israel where Barghouti is merely a symbol of resistance.
However, it appears that this story is made up. The ceremony was not to award Barghouti a prize.
What really happened was that the National Union of Tunisian Journalists said that they would officially nominate Barghouti to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The call came in a press conference organized by the union in partnership with the Palestinian embassy in Tunisia on the occasion of the celebration of Land Day and the Prisoners Day.
Apparently the president of the Human Rights League spoke at the press conference but that was its only involvement.
Anyone can nominate anyone for a Nobel prize; it is meaningless. The idea that a journalists union can affect who wins the Nobel is laughable.
But it shows very well how Tunisian civil society thinks about the word "peace."
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