'Palestinians agreed to cede nearly all Jewish areas of East Jerusalem'
Newly leaked documents reveal series of concessions made to Israel by PA negotiators; East Jerusalem offer was rejected as it didn't include settlements deeper in West Bank.
By Barak RavidPalestinian negotiators secretly agreed to concede almost all Jewish areas of East Jerusalem to Israel, the Guardian newspaper and Al-Jazeera TV reported on Saturday. As many as 1,600 Palestinian documents on peace talks with Israel, obtained by Al Jazeera TV and given to the Guardian, covering more than a decade of exchanges, provide a unique look into the breakdown of the peace process.
The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel's annexation of all but one of the neighborhoods, Har Homa, built in East Jerusalem.
This was one in a series of concessions made to Israel by Palestinian negotiators in an effort to move closer to independent statehood. The documents give the impression of a weakened Palestinian Authority and growing desperation among its leaders because of impasses in talks and the growing strength of Hamas.
Israeli negotiators come across in the minutes as confident while U.S. politicians seem dismissive toward Palestinian representatives, according to the Guardian.
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A Palestinian woman walks nearby the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa in east Jerusalem, Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. |
| Photo by: AP |
PA leadership may have difficulty explaining the revelations to a public not ready to offer the same concessions. The documents cover sensitive issues like the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the close cooperation between Israel and Palestinian Authority Security forces, land swaps in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and of Israeli warnings to the PA of the imminent invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2008-09.
Al-Jazeera TV reported that the Palestinian Authority offered Israel all settlements in Jerusalem except Har Homa on June 15, 2008.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, also proposed in an October 2009 meeting that Jerusalem's Old City be divided, ceding Israel control over the Jewish Quarter and part of the Armenian Quarter.
Further details reveal a Palestinian agreement to the return of only 100,000 Palestinian refugees into Israel, and that Erekat agreed to the Israeli demand of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
The documents also reveal that the Palestinian negotiators, in an effort to move forward on the hyper-sensitive issue of the holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, proposed a joint committee to administer the Temple Mount.
The offers were made in 2008, in the wake of the Annapolis conference, and were privately hailed by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as giving Israel "the biggest Yerushalayim [the Hebrew name for Jerusalem] in history."
Israeli leaders, backed by the U.S. government, said the offers were inadequate.
The leaked documents - drawn up by PA officials and lawyers working for the British-funded PLO negotiations support unit - include extensive verbatim transcripts of private meetings. Many were independently authenticated by the Guardian and corroborated by former participants in the talks and intelligence and diplomatic sources, the newspaper reported.
Cables from the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and the embassy in Tel Aviv recently released by WikiLeaks were used to confirm some of the information.
According to the documents, in May 2008 Palestinian leaders agreed to allow Israel to annex Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
Erekat told Israeli leaders in 2008 that "this is the first time in Palestinian-Israeli history in which such a suggestion is officially made."
Nonetheless, the offer was rejected out of hand by Israel because it did not include Ma'aleh Adumim, as well as Har Homa and Ariel, which is located deeper in the West Bank.
"We do not like this suggestion because it does not meet our demands," then Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, told the Palestinians, "and probably it was not easy for you to think about it, but I really appreciate it."
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Israel is more than it's governing majority. Yet it's ruling majority has long lied to the nation. What aside from any Palestine at all might the Palestinians give up to appease Israel?
According to the Beilin-Abed Rabbo Geneva plan, Jerusalem will be one city but sovereignty will depend on the population: Israeli for Jewish neighborhoods, Palestinian for Arab neighborhoods. Also, there was some formula for the number of refugees actually returning, and this came to about 10,000. It is no surprise that the Palestinians agreed to Geneva. Abed-Rabbo was close to Arafat and nowadays works for Abbas. Geneva is the most reasonable plan around, and it would have been good for Israel to take it. The sad thing is that after many diplomatic and other losses, Geneva will be how the conflict ends.
We know what Netanyahu refused. We know just how much Abbas was willing to give up so that Palestine might exist. The facts are simple. Israel will never allow a Palestine, for no concession that the Palestinians might make aside from mass suicide would be acceptable to Israel.
Abbas & Saeb the Israelis will no doubt erect monuments for both of you in 100 years or so.
The principle is very simple. Everything that is Jewish goes to the Jews and everything that is Arab goes to Palestine. There is nothing new in this ''leak''.
nothing less than every square inch of "historical israel" will satisfy them. what about the palestinians living on that land...? israel has made it abundantly clear that "it's not our problem". then they act shocked when the arabs get angry at them. go figure.
It is not the fault of the power hungry palestinian leadership it is the fault of the meek people who allow them to continue to rule. Learn from the Italians at Mossilini's time.
....it also wants those settlements that are buried deep, deep inside the West Bank. So how does that square with the notion that Israel insists upon "defensible borders"?
Don't expect to see it again. Israel's ever insatiable greed for more has ensured all of East Jerusalem will be the capital of the new Palestian state. You can close the book on this one.
After all the years of Israeli BS the truth is finally exposed.
The first and most important goal of every Israeli leader is to avoid being the person that makes peace. The second and most difficult goal of every Israeli leader is to appear to support peace while actively avoiding it. Netanyahu is not very good at the second part.
and you wonder why there is not peace today...
which includes Israel keeping the blocks the pals did not include in thier inital offer... its a shame talks broke down after that...
According to the Beilin-Abed Rabbo Geneva plan, Jerusalem will be one city but sovereignty will depend on the population: Israeli for Jewish neighborhoods, Palestinian for Arab neighborhoods. Also, there was some formula for the number of refugees actually returning, and this came to about 10,000. It is no surprise that the Palestinians agreed to Geneva. Abed-Rabbo was close to Arafat and nowadays works for Abbas. Geneva is the most reasonable plan around, and it would have been good for Israel to take it. The sad thing is that after many diplomatic and other losses, Geneva will be how the conflict ends.
How can they ceed something that does not belong to them to start with? It is Israel who agreed to ceed parts of historical Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria (called West Bank by the West).
Actually Arafat reportedly either agreed to or was considering some of the provisions, e.g. a token return of refugees with compensation paid to others (most wouldn't want to come back anyway, but wanted the right to return). And Bill Clinton proposed an oddball sovereignty for Haram Al Sharif / Temple Mount: Palestinian above the ground, Israeli below. Abu Quisling will suffer because many have forgotten what Arafat was willing to concede. Couple these with Wikileaks US cables referring to Abu Quisling as a weakling and he's not a candidate for Arafat's place - - "Stepfather of the Palestinian People" - - that's for sure.
warships Mediterranean Iranian naval exercise Less than 24 hours after the breakdown of its nuclear dialogue with the six world powers in Istanbul, Iran announced plans Sunday, Jan. 23, to send a fleet of warships, including a home-made destroyer, on operational and intelligence-gathering missions to the Red Sea and on to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.
Even if the Palestinians plan to give up 99% of all land, Israel will still not agree for a peace deal. Israel is not for peace, it wants a greater Israel.
seems like Israel rejected a generous and never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The Palestinians surely have no partner for peace.
seems like Israel rejected a generous and never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The Palestinians surely have no partner for peace.
This shouldn't surprise most. Makes it fairly obvious that only one side is willing to negotiate. This disclosure is going to cause a lot of anger among the less moderate Palestinians.
just dissolve the PA and demand Israeli citizenship. Micky mouse state is good for nothing.
if you remember there was a huge load of intel and classified idocuments the PA kept in a place in gaza...which was seized by hamas during their putsch. I smell either hamas or dahlan, or both. As for saeb, what a liar...look how he's now freaking on his "brothers" ...al jazeera...lol... if the PA wants a state, they know what they have to do. recognize israel as a jewish state, chill on the refugeees, split jerusalem..and accept land swaps. Also renounce violence against israel forever.
what? they really rejected THAT? why am i not surprised...... oh yeaaa israel really DOESNT want peace, i remember now, because if they did they couldve had it since a looooong time ago, they want everything, not just that.
That is there Demand..which will never ever be achieved..
Since you use his picture, do you know what he actually said? "Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home." -- This was published on 26 November 1938 in Harijan, Mohandas K. Gandhi's magazin
According to the Beilin-Abed Rabbo Geneva plan, Jerusalem will be one city but sovereignty will depend on the population: Israeli for Jewish neighborhoods, Palestinian for Arab neighborhoods. Also, there was some formula for the number of refugees actually returning, and this came to about 10,000. It is no surprise that the Palestinians agreed to Geneva. Abed-Rabbo was close to Arafat and nowadays works for Abbas. Geneva is the most reasonable plan around, and it would have been good for Israel to take it. The sad thing is that after many diplomatic and other losses, Geneva will be how the conflict ends.
easy one: reentering negotiations by referring to "treason" as the reason for the change of tactics, fixing the goal of having an independent palestinian state by the end of 2011 and scheduling new elections for the beginning of 2012. don´t retreat - attack good luck
is that the Pal position acknowledges that there is a Jewish dimension to East Jerusalem. Of course there is and has been historically. Never mind that the city was obviously a completely Jewish city. The Jewish quarter remained Jewish until slowly and surely the Jews were persecuted, intimidated and ultimately expelled by the Jordanians. In any event, I have always favoured joint sovereignty over Jerusalem, with a practical and fair way of blocking a deadlock. This would be best for all and certainly best economically for both Peoples. Many of the reports of offers of concession surprise me and suggest that the Pals have been more reasonable than I thought. If true, I think the Israelis need to bend more. Having said that, its tough for a People who are in the cross hairs of official Pal policy, in the cross hairs of the psychology of hate that the Pals and the Arab world has fostered and whose fears are not just theoretical to come to an accommodation that does not unduly risk the lives of Israeli citizens. Recognition of realities on the part of both sides would go a long way to a peaceful resolution, though Hamas is completely insane and who knows how to deal with that.
If that is on the table so should be the movement of major Palestinian blocks also.