Human rights award for Israeli duo

By the time they finished their set with a barnstorming version of The Beatles' We Can Work It Out, most of the large contingent from the NIF's younger New Generation group were bopping at the back, joined by Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner who was unable to resist the beat.

Jane Grabiner, host for the evening, said: "For the first time, we are focussing on those who use the arts to advocate for human and civil rights, and for dialogue and co-existence in Israel."

Sir Ronald Harwood, the playwright, presenting the awards, said that Noa and Mira had used "their enormous musical talent and friendship to promote dialogue and peace".

Also recognised with an award was Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann whose documentaries have ranged from disaffected Jewish youth to attempts to set up a binational Jewish-Arab school in Israel. One of his films followed the lives of a group of Filipino transvestites who work as carers of elderly Orthodox men in Israel - prompting Sir Ronald to quip: "Nice work if you can get it!"

Guests included actors David and Clive Swift, Board of Deputies president Vivian Wineman and Reform movement head Rabbi Tony Bayfield and chairman Stephen Moss. One of the night's other attractions was the catering - by fashionable London-based Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi, whose business partner Sami Tamimi is a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.