June 26, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 25,1424

TEL AVIV, June 25: Two leading Israeli and Palestinian figures officially launched on Wednesday a peace initiative aimed at collecting as many signatures as possible in a bid to force leaders on both sides to work toward ending months of violence.

Called “The People’s Voice”, the project was initiated by a former chief of Israel’s Shin Beth internal security services, Ami Ayalon, and Sari Nusseibeh, a Palestinian intellectual who heads the Al Quds University, in the holy city.

Both of them are moderates who have been almost marginalized within their own communities. They signed in July last year a “Statement of Principles” based on the vision of two states living side-by-side as is the so-called internationally-drafted roadmap for peace.

But the document presented by the two men is more far-reaching than the blueprint currently being discussed as it does not focus on rekindling negotiations, but rather on determining their outcome.

The text calls for an Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied during the June 1967 war “with the possibility to exchange territories”, and division for Al Quds, whose Arab neighbourhoods would come under Palestinian sovereignty.

The plan also stipulates that the 3.7 million Palestinian refugees could only return to a future Palestinian state and not to towns and villages inside Israel.

During a joint press conference in Tel Aviv, Mr Nusseibeh and Mr Ayalon said the plan was aimed at supporting and complementing the roadmap, which calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

Mr Nusseibeh, who was in charge of affairs in the holy city for the Palestine Liberation Organization until last year, said he hoped to collect “100,000 signatures in the next six months” in order to “encourage leaders to take the necessary measures”.

Mr Ayalon said he hoped to collect two Israeli signatures for each Palestinian one, and added that the petition would be officially launched in newspapers on Thursday.

The measures proposed by the two officials appear as a radical break in the protracted step-by-step political process currently under way, but are likely to draw little public support.

But thePalestinian stressed: “We started this campaign because it is not a popular point of view.”

He said he had demanded financial aid for the project from the United States and the European Union, but added he had not yet received a response.

He said that waiving the right of return for Palestinian refugees was “the price we have to pay to get our independent state”.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had handed the prickly Al Quds file to Mr Nusseibeh in 2001, but his moderate stance had prompted verbal attacks from several Palestinian movements.

His dovish proposal was likely to draw irate reactions from the Palestinian hardline groups, who have vowed to fight for the right of return with their blood.

“If your question is: Am I not afraid? The answer is yes, I’m afraid,” said Mr Nusseibeh. —AFP