Jerusalem, Jan. 24: Palestinian negotiators secretly told Israel it could keep swathes of occupied East Jerusalem, according to leaked documents that show Palestinians offering much bigger peace concessions than previously revealed.
The documents, obtained by the Al Jazeera television channel, could undermine the position of the Palestinian President, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, whose public declarations about Jerusalem are at odds with what his officials were promising in private.
Equally sobering for the Palestinian people, who want to create a state on land Israel seized in a 1967 war, is the fact that Israel offered nothing in return for the concessions and turned down their offer, saying it did not go far enough.
The leaked documents of a 2008 meeting between Palestinian, the US and Israeli officials showed a senior Palestinian proposing that Israel annex all but one of its major Jerusalem settlements as part of a deal to end their decades-old conflict.
Al Jazeera said on Sunday it had other documents that show the Palestinians were ready to make other massive concessions on the hugely sensitive issue of the right to return for Palestinian refugees.
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Mr Saeb Erekat, went on the defensive, dismissing the documents as “a bunch of lies” during an appearance on Al Jazeera shortly after they were out.
Mr Erekat was confronted by critics including Mr Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, who asked him who had authorised him or the Palestinian leadership “to give up Islamic holy sites”. One document quoted Mr Erekat as telling an Israeli official: “It is no secret that ...we are offering you the biggest Yerushalayim in history.” He used the Hebrew word for Jerusalem.