Reuven Rivlin
- Speaker of the Knesset, Israel.
A lawyer by profession, Rivlin holds an L.L.B. degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Rivlin served as Legal Adviser, Chairman and team manager of the Betar Jerusalem Sports Association. He was a member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council (since 1978) and a member of the El Al Executive Council (1981-1986). He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Khan Theater and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. He served as Chairman, of the Likud Organization (1988-1993) and as Chairman of the Jerusalem Branch of the Herut Movement (from 1986). Reuven Rivlin has been a Knesset Member since 1988, serving on the following Knesset committees: Foreign Affairs and Defense; Constitution, Law and Justice; State Control; Anti-Drug Abuse; Education and Culture; Ethics; Finance; House; and Advancement of the Status of Women. He also was a member of the Committee for Appointing Judges; the Committee for the Examination of the Maccabia Bridge Disaster; the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the Continuing Financial Crisis of the Local Governments; and the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Violence in Sports. Reuven Rivlin served as Minister of Communications from March 2001 until February 2003. He served as Speaker of the 16th Knesset from February 2003 until March 2006, and in March 2009 he was selected once again to serve as Speaker of the (18th) Knesset.
Gert Weisskirchen
- Former member of the Bundestag, Germany.
Gert Weisskirchen was a Member of the German Bundestag for over 30 years – from 1976 until his retirement a few months ago. In this time, he served in many capacities and on many parliamentary committees and groups including the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Committee on European Relations, and the Committee on Culture and Media. Mr. Weisskirchen was also highly involved in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – or OSCE, where he served in several positions including as a Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, President of the Commission on 'Human Rights, democracy and humanitarian questions within the OSCE' and Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He was also the Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE for Combating Antisemitism. Outside his duties in the Bundestag and OSCE, Mr. Weisskirchen is also a member of the Brandenburg commission on Higher Education, and a Member of the Presidency of the Helsinki Citizen's Assembly – an umbrella organization for peace and human rights movements, founded by Vaclav Havel. Mr. Weisskirchen is also head of the Friends of the Open University of Israel.
Prof. Irwin Cotler
- Member of Parliament, Canada.
Prof. Cotler is a Law Professor, Constitutional and Comparative Law Scholar, International Human Rights Lawyer, Counsel to prisoners of conscience, NGO Head, Public Intellectual, Community Leader and Peace Activist, Member of the Canadian Parliament since 1999, and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Currently serving as Liberal Special Counsel for Human Rights and International Justice, Professor Cotler is a distinguished academic and a prominent human rights lawyer, whose dedication to humanitarian causes has earned him the Order of Canada among many other awards – which include nine honorary doctorates. He is the chair of the international steering committee of the ICCA. Finally Prof. Cotler has also launched an international petition endorsed by leading jurists, survivors and genocide scholars seeking to hold Ahmadinejad's Iran to account for state-sanctioned incitement to genocide.
John Mann
- Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
John Mann was elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 2001. He first sat on the Treasury Committee before being appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary of the Minister for Sport. Mr. Mann is currently a member of the Treasury Select Committee. Since his time in student politics John Mann has been vocal in his condemnation of all forms of racism and intolerance and has worked tirelessly in attempting to combat it. In 2005 he was appointed as the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism and represented the All-Party Group at the OSCE Conference on Antisemitism and Other Forms of Intolerance in Spain in June 2005. In November of that year he commissioned an inquiry into the state of antisemitism in the UK. The inquiry published a report of its findings and received an official government response. Mr. Mann was formerly a company director and business man. He also has a strong Trade Union background working as the National Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Officer at the Trade Union Congress and as the Head of Research and Education at Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU). He served as the Union General Election Coordinator for the 1997 General Election.
Fiamma Nirenstein
- Member of Parliament, Italy.
In April 2008 Fiamma Nirenstein was elected Member of the Italian Parliament where she now serves as the Vice President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies. Until her election, she was a columnist and correspondent from Israel for "Il Giornale", a daily Italian newspaper, where she still contributes as an analyst. Since the start of her career in 1977, Ms. Nirenstein has been a columnist and correspondent for many major newspapers and magazines such as Panorama; l'Espresso; and Epoca. She regularly contributes to the 'New York Sun', 'Commentray Magazine' and has written for 'Moment magazine.' She has authored nine books, the latest being 'Israel is us' which came out in 2007, and has now been translated into English. Ms. Nirenstein has been awarded 16 journalistic and literary awards. In '93 and '94, Ms. Nirenstein directed the Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv. She teaches Middle East History at Luiss University in Rome, and is a member of the board of the Italian Foundation Magna Carta and a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and of the Hudson Institute. In September this year, Ms. Nirenstein promoted the contitution of an Inquiry on Antisemitism in Italy to be led by the Foreign Affairs and Contitutional Affairs Committees of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
Lord Greville Janner
- Lord Greville Janner of Braunstone, QC.
Lord Greville Janner was made a life peer in 1997 after 27 years as a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, and as a result, now sits in the House of Lords. From 1994-96, he served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Employment and as Vice Chairman of the British Israel Parliamentary Group, the British India Parliamentary Group and the British Egypt Parliamentary Group. He is also Founder and Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary War Crimes Group.
Lord Janner currently serves as Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress and Founder and President of the Commonwealth Jewish Council and Inter Parliamentary Council Against Antisemitism. He is also Chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust. Along with Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, Lord Janner is the joint founder and co-President of the Political Council for Coexistence, and serves as the Chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s “Baltic Mass Graves Committee.” A key international figure in efforts to seek compensation and restitution for Holocaust victims, Lord Janner was instrumental in arranging the 1997 London Nazi Looted Gold conference. Lord Janner has also authored over 60 books.