OSLO // Representatives of Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet picked up their Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo on Thursday, calling for the creation of a Palestinian state as a way to fight “terrorism”.
“Today, we need to accelerate the elimination of hot spots all over the world, particularly the resolution of the Palestinian issue,” Houcine Abassi, the secretary general of the Tunisian General Labour Union, said in an acceptance speech on behalf of the quartet.
This would be done by giving “the Palestinian people the right to self-determination on their land and [to] build their independent state,” he added to thunderous applause in Oslo’s City Hall, just moments after being handed the prestigious prize.
The quartet is made up of Tunisia’s Human Rights League, General Labour Union (UGTT), the Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), and the Bar Association.
It was honoured with the Nobel prize for helping to save Tunisia’s transition to democracy at a sensitive moment in 2013 when the process was in danger of collapsing because of widespread social unrest.
Before the ceremony, Mr Abassi said the prize would be displayed at Tunisia’s Bardo Museum where 21 foreigners were killed in an extremist attack.
“This prize is not one awarded to the quartet exclusively,” he said, adding that it also honoured the victims of the Jasmine Revolution in 2011 and militant attacks, as well as women and young people, political parties, and all of Tunisian society.
* Agence France-Presse
