JERUSALEM — Palestinian Authority officials in the West Bank reacted angrily Monday to the release of memos by the al-Jazeera network that revealed apparent concessions negotiators were willing to make to Israel in 2008. The discussions were kept confidential out of concern that media leaks of details from the talks would undermine the peace process.
Among the revelations contained in the documents, which the station’s website said number more than 1,600, were Palestinian negotiators’ willingness to cede sections of East Jerusalem to Israeli control as part of a final peace deal.
Minutes detailing the concession came from a meeting in Jerusalem in June 2008 between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators mediated by then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Al-Jazeera’s English-language website is calling the documents the Palestine Papers and is posting them incrementally, WikiLeaks style, over the next several days.
Palestinian negotiators on Monday denied much of the report and directed their anger at al-Jazeera and the media outlet’s host country, Qatar, for allowing them to be released.
Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo called the documents’ publication a “political campaign” by Qatar’s leadership against the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abed Rabbo said the documents were forged “to serve al-Jazeera’s prior position,” which often has been hostile to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Roughly 50 demonstrators attacked al-Jazeera’s office in Ramallah, breaking a window and spraying graffiti on the entryway that said “collaborator” and “al-Jazeera = Israel.”
Similar graffiti was found in Ramallah’s Al Manara Square, illustrating the seeming predominant Palestinian sentiment that the Palestine Papers served Israeli interests.
Israeli officials were largely quiet about the documents’ release. Israeli media commentators speculated that the documents could cause the Palestinians to harden their negotiating positions should U.S.-mediated talks, which have been deadlocked for months, resume.
