Winners of a prestigious Israeli prize back a Palestinian state
An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish boy burns leavened items in a final preparation before the start at sundown of the Jewish Passover holiday on April 18, 2011 in Bnei Brak, Israel. All leavened food, such as bread, is forbidden to Jews during the week-long holiday, which commemorates the Israelites’ hasty departure from Egypt.
Dozens of Israeli intellectuals are calling for the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and plan to publicly sign a petition that calls for the end to Israeli "occupation" of disouted territory.
Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will travel to Paris on Wednesday to seek advice and support from European leaders on the creation of a Palestinian state this year, Agence France-Press reports.
Palestinian officials have said they are determined to seek U.N. recognition for a state within the borders that existed before the start of the 1967 Six Day War, to include the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
The Israeli government opposes the move, saying that bypassing Israel and appealing for international support for a state is counterproductive to bilateral peace negotiations, according to DPA.
Peace talks have been on ice, amid Israel's refusal to meet the Palestinian precondition that it freeze all Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A group of 17 winners of the prestigious Israel Prize have begun start a campaign to build support for the move, releasing a petition that reportedly reads: "We are here to welcome the expected announcement of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, according to the borders of our Independence, fixed during the 1949 armistice."
Ending the Israeli "occupation" is the only way to abide by the U.N. partition resolution passed in 1947, according to the group.
They plan to sign a petition Thursday in a symbolic ceremony in front of the building where the state of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, AFP reported. Several dozen other Israeli artists and intellectuals have already signed.
Among the petition's prominent signatories are Menachem Yaari, the former president of Israel Academy of Sciences, Shulamit Aloni, the founder of the leftist Meretz party and Danny Karavan, a painter and sculptor.
All three are winners of the Israel Prize, which is considered the Jewish state's highest honor and given for outstanding achievement in fields such as education, history and science.
"We call on everyone who seeks peace and freedom for all peoples to support the declaration of Palestinian statehood," the petition reads, DPA reports.
Leading Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer, who is among the signatories, told the leftist Haaretz daily that he signed the statement "from a Zionist
standpoint."
"Zionism sets as its goal the preservation of a Jewish national home," he reportedly said. "But the continuation of the occupation … rules out the possibility that the Jewish people will live in its land with a strong majority and international recognition."
He continued: "In my eyes, this makes the [current, right-leaning Israeli] government [of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] clearly anti-Zionist."