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Vindicating Israel: "Palileaks" Corroborates Israel's Narrative on Past PA Talks

(Jerusalem Post) Gil Hoffman - One of the arguments Abbas is making to world leaders is that he tried to reach an agreement with Netanyahu's predecessor Ehud Olmert, and he came close. Olmert has argued that he offered Abbas a sweetheart deal and the Palestinian leader never responded. The 1,700 documents revealed by Al Jazeera and the Guardian in January, called "the Palestine Papers" or "Palileaks," were seen as proof that the Palestinians were willing to make unprecedented concessions in Abbas' talks with Olmert - an impression fed by documents released selectively in a way that made Abbas seem overly generous and Israel overly hard-line. Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, a U.S. liberal, non-Evangelical Christian group, had a team of researchers read through all of the 1,700 Palestine Papers. They found documents indicating that the Palestinians had decided not to issue a counter-offer to Olmert's proposal and that Abbas had been advised by his team to wait until George W. Bush was out of the White House. The documents also reveal that Al Jazeera had wrongly portrayed proposed international control over the Holy Basin in Jerusalem as an official PA proposal, but in a document, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told American diplomats that he was speaking in his private capacity. On the refugee issue, the organization found, "While Palestinian negotiators spoke publicly about compromise on refugees, privately they spoke of the 'right of return' as a matter of individual choice that would have to be extended to each of over seven million 'refugees.' They anticipated the potential 'return' of millions of Palestinians to the State of Israel, with Palestinians retaining the open-ended right to try to negotiate additional 'returns' beyond any number initially agreed upon in a peace treaty."
2011-05-03 00:00:00
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