Whatever promising speeches and wishful exchanges will have been put forth in Annapolis, if confidence is to be gradually rebuilt between the conflicting sides, unconditional measures must urgently be taken:

1) Open the doors of prisons not according to political and partisan criteria, but according to humanitarian, law-abiding criteria.

2) Adhere to international humanitarian and human rights law and refrain from any measure related, even remotely, to collective punishment.

3) Abstain from any escalation in the unstable period extending from Annapolis to Paris – and beyond.

Give Annapolis a Chance Communiqué

In this re-emerging process, of taking bold steps on the way to justice and common sense, we urge both sides to show creative courage in their approach. The Palestinians have held Israeli Corporal, Gilad Shalit, prisoner for over sixteen months. They must free him, as they freed British reporter, Alan Johnston, after the Hamas take-over in Gaza .

The Israelis hold more than ten thousand Palestinian prisoners in their jails. As they freed Dr Al Shaer in July, and some three hundred persons, they 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. Human beings are not bargaining chips.

In the same spirit, Israel must end all targeted assassinations and all extra-judicial killings, in exchange for an end to all Palestinian Qassam attacks.

Supported by:

Nobel Medicine Laureates Arvid Carlsson, Edmond Fischer and Richard Roberts

Literature Laureates Elfriede Jelinek and Wole Soyinka

Chemistry Laureate Elias Corey, Roald Hoffmann and Sir Harold Kroto

Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu

Physics Laureate Anthony Leggett

Members of the European Parliament Chris Davies and Caroline Lucas (UK), Maria Carlshamre and Jens Holm (Sweden), Angelika Beer (Germany), and Luisa Morgantini (Italy) , Michel Rocard (France)

Linguist Noam Chomsky

www.peacelines.org

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