Betty Purcell’s heartfelt advocacy on behalf of the Arab population in the West Bank is clearly genuine, she describes how “as a teenager, I planned to go and work on a kibbutz, believing that Israel was building an equal and fair society.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has promised to hold a national referendum on any final status agreement with Israel, and criticised Israeli pressure on him to confront militants, the Palestinian government news agency, WAFA, has reported.