The Telegraph
Palestinian negotiatiors 'offered Israel sovereignty over almost all of Jerusalem'
The Palestinian Authority was facing a backlash from its own people last night after leaked documents showed that it secretly offered Israel sovereignty over nearly all the Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority offered of concessions on areas such as the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount holy sites in Jerusalem Photo: REUTERS
By Adrian Blomfield, Jerusalem 11:10PM GMT 23 Jan 2011
The proposal, which amounts to the biggest
Palestinian concession ever made over the future of Jerusalem, was floated but rejected by Israel during peace talks in 2008.
The papers, which include diplomatic communiques and transcripts of private high-level meetings, provide a rare glimpse of the Palestinian approach to peace talks from the failed Camp David summit of 1999 until last year.
They detail the extent to which Palestinian negotiators were prepared to compromise on the most divisive issues preventing a peace deal with Israel, some of which ordinary Palestinians are likely to find galling.
Among the most sensitive subjects to be addressed, ones which both sides have often avoided in public, were
the fate of East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, and of religious sites in the city's Holy Basin, a particularly noxious issue.
One transcript shows that Palestinian negotiators were prepared to allow Israel to annex all of the Jewish settlements build in East Jerusalem after 1967 with the exception of Har Homa, because it was the most recently-built settlement.
"This is the first time in history that we made such a proposition," Ahmed Qurei, the former lead Palestinian negotiator is shown as saying in 2008. "We refused to do so at Camp David."
In a separate document, Saeb Erakat, the present chief negotiator, said the offer represented "the biggest Yerushalayim in history", using the Hebrew word for Jerusalem.
That such an offer should be made is not entirely surprising - under an initiative driven by President Bill Clinton after the collapse of the Camp David talks, the United States proposed that Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem become part of Israel while Arab suburbs be included in a new Palestinian state.
The so-called "Clinton Parameters", which address all major outstanding issues, are widely accepted to be the basis of any Middle East peace deal. Because it fell short of the parameters, it is also not a surprise that Israel rejected the Palestinian offer.
But Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and his government have always had to address peace talks in a different way, acting more pragmatically with the Israelis and Americans but promising Palestinians they will be uncompromising in their defence of Jerusalem.
Palestinians are likely to be dismayed that Mr Erekat told US envoys that there were "creative ways" of dealing with the issue of sovereignty over Jerusalem's holy sites, even though this too is broadly in line with the Clinton Parameters.
Of all Palestinian officials, however, Mr Erekat is likely to face the most profound embarrassment after the papers showed that he described Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister, as "a friend" and told Tzipi Livni, the opposition leader, that he would vote for her, if he could, before an election in 2009.
Mrs Livni lost out in the election to Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish present prime minister.
Mr Erekat dismissed the documents as "a bunch of lies" during an appearance on Al Jazeera shortly after the documents were released.
More worryingly for Mr Abbas, al Jazeera is promising to disclose additional documents whose impact could be much severer.
They are said to include details of the close cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces in operations against Hamas in the West Bank and disclosures that the Abbas leadership had been tipped off in advance about Israel's war in Gaza in 2008.
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Leaked documents show Palestinian peace concessions
January 24, 2011
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Palestinian peace negotiators were willing to turn over nearly all of the Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem and accept a shared authority of the Temple Mount, leaked Palestinian documents reveal.
More than 1,600 Palestinian documents about the peace process with Israel were leaked to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network, which shared them with Britain's The Guardian newspaper. They began appearing Sunday night in the two media outlets.
According to the documents, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told U.S. officials that the Palestinians were giving Israel "the biggest Yerushalayim in history," The Guardian reported.
They show that during negotiations in 2008 and 2009, Palestinian negotiators offered Israel all of the Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem, with the exception of Har Homa, which now has 20,000 residents. PLO leaders also suggested trading parts of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah for land located elsewhere, according to The Guardian.
The Palestinian negotiators also proposed a joint committee to take over the Jewish and Palestinian holy sites on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The documents show that the Palestinians agreed that Israel would take 10,000 Palestinians refugees under the right of return and that they would recognize Israel as a Jewish state. In addition, Israel offered to transfer Israeli Arabs to the Palestinian state.
They also reveal that Palestinian Authority leaders in the West Bank, including President Mahmoud Abbas, were warned in advance about the Gaza war, which began in December 2008 and lasted for one month.
The documents reportedly were leaked over several months from more than one source, according to a Guardian editors' statement. The identity of the leakers is being protected by Al Jazeera and The Guardian.
On Monday, Erekat called the report on the documents "lies and half truths."
Ahmed Qureia, who led the negotiations in 2008, told The Associated Press that "many parts of the documents were fabricated, as part of the incitement against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian leadership." Abbas said that nothing reported in the documents is secret, and that the PLO was updated on all offered concessions.
Abbas also rejected the report that said the number of Palestinians being allowed to return to Israel would be severely limited.
Peace.
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