The newspapere adverts were an attempt to reach out to ordinary Israelis [File: EPA]

The full-page advertisements were published in Hebrew in four Israeli newspapers on Thursday.

The initiative, which offers Israel normal relations with Arab countries, was first proposed in 2002, but has not been acted on depite Israel's president saying in October that he was open to the plan.

The text of the advertisement read: "Fifty-seven Arab and Islamic countries will establish diplomatic ties and normal relations with Israel in return for a full peace agreement and an end to the occupation."

It also lays out the concessions that Israel would have to make for Arab states to put the plan into force, including full withdrawal to the 1967 borders and respect for UN Security Council resolution on the right of Palestinian refugees to return.

'Misinterpreted'

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Abbas aide, said the campaign was meant to inform Israelis about the Arab peace, which until now has been "misinterpreted by the extreme Israeli right-wing as an Arab conspiracy against Israel and its future".

The advertisement, bordered by the flags of dozens of Arab and other Muslim states, also ran in Arabic in three Palestinian papers.

It received a mixed response in the Arabic press, with Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper criticising the move in an editorial.

"We doubt that the advertisements of the Palestinian Authority, which were paid for from the funds offered to the Palestinian people, will be able to get Israeli public opinion to support the Arab peace initiative, just as we doubt ... that it will change the Israelis' position toward the key issues."

'Constructive'

But Asharq Al-Awsat, another pan-Arab newspaper, took a more positive view.

"This is one of the rare times that the PA [Palestinian Authority] has done a political move that is constructive even if they had to pay for it," it wrote.

"Addressing the Israeli public directly will ... put pressure on Israeli politicians who have constantly refused the initiative and scared the public from it."

In October, Shimon Peres, Israel's president, told Hosni Mubarak, his Egyptian counterpart, that although he did not accept all of the plan it could form the basis for negotiations between the two sides.

Egypt, along with Jordan, are the only two countries in the 22-member Arab League which have peace accords with Israel.

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