ISRAELI INITIATIVE

MIDDLE East peace initiatives seem to have dried up from the White House but an important step towards peace between Israel and the Palestinians is due to be taken today when a public declaration by dozens of Israel's most honoured intellectuals and cultural leaders will endorse the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders between the two countries. Symbolically, the declaration will be read at the place in Tel Aviv where Israel declared its independence in 1948.

The declaration begins with these words: “The land of Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people where its identity was shaped. The land of Palestine is the birthplace of the Palestinian people where its identity was shaped.” More than 20 of the signatories of this declaration are recipients of the Israel Prize, the country's most prestigious award. This is the second recent major non-political Israeli initiative in favour of the declaration of an independent Palestine state, an issue which is likely to come before the UN General Assembly in the autumn.

Ultimately, of course, progress will require prime minister Netanyahu's support, which cannot be taken for granted, and a positive response from the Palestinian Authority; but the declaration's immediate importance is to show that there are influential voices in Israel which favour a more constructive approach to relations with their neighbours than the current Israeli government normally chooses to take.