The Palestine Papers: Al-Jazeera Has an Agenda

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Al-Jazeera, the powerful Qatari satellite television station, has been publishing documents leaked to it from the office of the main PLO negotiator, Sa'eb Erekat, and his Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) on its main news program, and has opened a special WikiLeaks-like website dedicated to the publication of the original documents.¹

In addition, the British Guardian, which also publishes WikiLeaks documents, is publishing the Palestinian documents in the same format. In addition, both al-Jazeeraand the Guardian are putting much effort into commentaries and explanations of what the documents mean.

It is obvious that al-Jazeera has a political agenda and wants to make a point. The PA sees the publication of the documents as an act of state espionage. An open crisis broke out, with the PA accusing Qatar of treason for hosting the largest U.S. bases in the Middle East.

Charges Meant to Damage the PA's Reputation

Indeed, the release of the documents has caused great damage to the reputation of the PA and the PLO negotiating team. Sa'eb Erekat noted that while the PA was en route to triumph as it gathered international support for the recognition of a Palestinian state and for isolating Israel, al-Jazeera cut short this triumph and "instead of delegitimizing the occupation, they delegitimized us."

The main damage caused to the PA and the PLO negotiating team related to their exposure as "traitors" who betrayed Arafat's red lines on Jerusalem and the right of return, and who collaborated with Israel to the point of helping Israel in assassinating top Hamas terrorists.

On Jerusalem, the main accusation is about betraying Arafat's legacy of insisting on full Palestinian sovereignty over the al-Aqsa Mosque compound (the Temple Mount), including the cavity beneath the compound, and accepting instead President Clinton's old parameters of: "what is Jewish to Israel and what is Arab to Palestine." According to the documents, the Palestinian negotiating team relinquished all Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem except for Har Homa - including Ramot Shlomo, the Jewish neighborhood that sparked the crisis between Israel and the U.S., and Sheikh Jarrah, now a location for demonstrations by international supporters of the Palestinian cause.

On the Palestinian refugees, according to the leaked documents, the PLO negotiating team gave up the right of return. They quote PA leader Mahmoud Abbas' internal briefing to PA officials that "we cannot demand the return of millions, as this will end Israel." He has made similar statements to the open media. Abbas is also quoted as offering that 100,000 refugees be allowed to return to Israel proper over ten years, while Israeli Prime Minister Olmert was ready to let in only 1,000 per year, totaling 10,000 after ten years.

Another damaging blow to the PA is the revelation of collaboration in the killing of top Hamas leaders in Gaza. This could lead to a series of revenge attacks on an extended family (hamula) basis that could drag on for generations.

After reading many of the documents, it appears that most of them are genuine and reflected the course of negotiations with Israel's previous Kadima government. The problem is that because al-Jazeera has a point to prove - that the PLO negotiators betrayed Arafat's legacy and hurried to cross red lines, with their gestures unreciprocated - Israel is portrayed as a hard-line interlocutor that did not respond to PLO "moderation." This results in damage to both sides - to the "traitorous" PLO and to "unresponsive" Israel.

Yet there appears to be a clear gap between the substance of these documents and the way they were presented. Besides a readiness to accept the principle of land swaps - from the Clinton parameters - there were no further Palestinian concessions. Nor was there agreement on the size and location of these land swaps. The PLO team was adamant in refusing to agree to Israeli demands to keep the settlement blocs. For example, the Palestinians demanded the dismantling of the city of Ariel (pop. 17,559), and they were ready to consider leaving Israelis living in Ma'ale Adumim (pop. 34,324) only if the Jewish city adjacent to Jerusalem was under Palestinian sovereignty.

While Erekat mentioned "creative ideas" to solve the issue of the al-Aqsa/Temple Mount compound, they have nothing to do with sharing the site with Israel, but rather to establishing an Arab and Muslim consortium to supervise the holy site.

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Original piece is http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=5864&TTL=The_Palestine_Papers:_Al-Jazeera_Has_an_Agenda

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The Palestine Papers: Al-Jazeera Has an Agenda