Documents to show ‘intimate level of covert co-operation’ between Israel, Palestinian Authority
“Desperate” Palestinian negotiators offered Israel almost all of Jerusalem as part of a peace deal, only to see the offer rejected as inadequate, leaked official Palestinian documents show.
Documents leaked to Arabic news channel al-Jazeera and obtained by the Guardian show that senior Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia made the offer to Israeli negotiators in June of 2008, at a meeting attended by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and then Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Qureia’s offer would see all of East Jerusalem, except one neighborhood — Har Homa — handed over permanently to Israel as part of a peace deal.
“This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition; we refused to do so in Camp David,” Qureia reportedly said, referring to the peace negotiations held under President Clinton, which fell apart in 2000 with the start of the Second Intifada.
In response, “the Israeli side refused to even place Jerusalem on the agenda, let alone offer the PA concessions in return for its historic offer,” al-Jazeera reports.
The Guardian reports:
Israeli negotiator Tzipi Livni is recorded as dismissing the offer out of hand because the Palestinians had refused to concede Har Homa, as well as the settlements at Ma’ale Adumim, near Jerusalem, and Ariel, deeper in the West Bank. Israel’s position was fully supported by the Bush administration.
“We do not like this suggestion because it does not meet our demands, and probably it was not easy for you to think about it, but I really appreciate it,” Livni said.
“These documents could discredit among Palestinians the very notion of negotiation with Israel and the two-state solution that underpins it,” Jonathan Freedland wrote in a comment piece at the Guardian.
(Read more from rawstory.com)
Also, via Twitter: Al Jazeera will release the 1st of more than 1,600 documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 20GMT