Written declaration No. 579 | Doc. 13553 | 25 June 2014

Release of three Israeli teenagers

Signatories: Mr James CLAPPISON, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Brian BINLEY, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Christopher CHOPE, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Grzegorz CZELEJ, Poland, NR ; Mr David DAVIES, United Kingdom, EDG ; Alexander [The Earl of] DUNDEE, United Kingdom, EDG ; Lady Diana ECCLES, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Jonathan EVANS, United Kingdom, EDG ; Ms Sevinj FATALIYEVA, Azerbaijan, EDG ; Ms Sahiba GAFAROVA, Azerbaijan, EDG ; Sir Roger GALE, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mrs Cheryl GILLAN, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Zbigniew GIRZYŃSKI, Poland, NR ; Ms Ingebjørg GODSKESEN, Norway, EDG ; Mr Mariusz KAMIŃSKI, Poland, NR ; Mr Ian LIDDELL-GRAINGER, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Arkadiusz MULARCZYK, Poland, NR ; Mr Robert NEILL, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Pieter OMTZIGT, Netherlands, EPP/CD ; Mr Samad SEYIDOV, Azerbaijan, EDG ; Mr Robert WALTER, United Kingdom, EDG ; Dame Angela WATKINSON, United Kingdom, EDG

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

Noting that on 12 June 2014, three Israeli teenagers - Eyal Yifrah aged 19, Gilad Shaar aged 16 and Naftali Frenkel aged 16 - were abducted whilst hitchhiking in the West Bank; that the Hamas organisation is widely believed to be involved in this act; that President Abu Mazen stated at the Arab Nations Conference of Foreign Ministers in Saudi Arabia that “those who stand behind the kidnapping did it in order to destroy the Palestinian Authority” and that such an action undermines the peace process which the Parliamentary Assembly has on many occasions supported,

the undersigned members of the Parliamentary Assembly condemn this brutal act in the strongest possible terms and call for the immediate release of the teenagers and for all governments to work to this end.