17 Members of the European Parliament, from across the political spectrum, slammed the invitation made by the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Palestine (DPAL) for relatives of convicted Palestinian terrorists to address the delegation on Thursday in Strasbourg.

The two guest speakers are Fadwa Barghouti, wife of Marwan Barghouti, and Sumoud Saadta, daughter of Ahmad Sa’adat.

Ahmad Sa’aadat, a convicted terrorist is currently Secretary General of the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (FPLP), responsible for hijacking aircrafts from Brussels, Frankfurt, Zurich, conducting several attacks on Israeli embassies in Europe and other terrorist acts resulting in many casualties. Equally, Marwan Barghouti, founder of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade during the Second Intifada, responsible of carrying out attacks on civilians, has been convicted in 2004 by the Israeli government for 5 counts of murder.

In a letter addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, the17 MEPS wrote: “We are utterly appalled with the understanding that our colleagues from DPAL, under the pretext of discussing, ‘the situation of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails after the hunger-strike’, are in fact offering a public platform to relatives of convicted terrorists”.

The letter was sent by Swedish MEP Lars Adaktusson who is President of the political board of Europe Israel Public Affairs (EIPA).

The letter reads: ‘’We, Members of the European Parliament, are seriously concerned with the message this forum sends to our constituencies amidst such turbulent times in Europe. Unquestioningly, the House of European democracy should not be perceived glorifying terrorist or opening its doors to EU listed terrorist organisations, such as the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and for Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (Council Decision 2012/333/CFSP).’’

The signatories stressed that the organizers of the hearing are blatantly ignoring “the Council Decision listing both the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PLPF) and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade as terrorist organisations”.

“Given that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involves a wide range of issues, we encourage our colleagues, who choose to show their support for the Palestinian self-determination, to engage with Palestinian actors pursuing peace, and not with convicted terrorists,” the MEPs said.

Teodora Coptil, head of relations with the EU Institutions at EIPA, commented : “With a newly formed Committee on Counterterrorism, the European Parliament should vehemently enforce its rejection of any form of incitement and hate speech, and discipline its Members who are offering an official platform to PFLP and Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade affiliates; such actions undermine the very core of European values and norms”

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, founder of EIPA, added: "Can you imagine what the reaction would be had the family of Osama Bin Laden would be invited to the European Parliament to express the motivation and supposed rationale of their terrorist relative? It is unthinkable.’’

‘’Yet this is precisely what the Delegation for Palestine sought to do. We welcome the MEPs initiative to quickly move and raise their objections at this abhorrent move. It is now up to the President to ensure that this doesn't happen, " he said.

Following are the names of the MEPs who signed the letter:

MEP Lars ADAKTUSSON (EPP, Sweden)

MEP Fulvio MARTUSCIELLO (Chair of the Delegation for relations with Israel/ EPP, Italy)

MEP Ioan Mircea PASCU (Vice President of the European Parliament/S&D, Romania)

MEP Frederique RIES (ALDE, Belgium)

MEP Petras AUSTREVICIUS (Vice-Chair ALDE, Lithuania)

MEP Cristian DAN PREDA (EPP, Romania)

MEP Hannu TAKKULA (ALDE, Finland)

MEP Bas BELDER (Vice-Chair of the Delegation for relations with Israel/ ECR, the Netherlands)

MEP Milan ZVER (EPP, Slovenia)

MEP Patricija SULIN (EPP, Slovenia)

MEP Peter NIEDERMULLER (S&D, Hungary)

MEP Anders VISTISEN (Vice-Chair AFET/ ECR, Denmark)

MEP Tunne KELAM (EPP, Estonia)

MEP Marijana PETIR (EPP, Croatia)

MEP Arne GERICKE (ECR, Germany)

MEP Branislav SKPRIPEK (ECR, Slovakia)

MEP Anna Fotyga (ECR, Pola European Parliament to Host Terror-Linked NGO