JERUSALEM - THE Palestinians offered Israel major concessions on the thorny issues of annexed east Jerusalem and refugees in 2008 peace talks, in leaked documents angrily dismissed as 'distortions' on Monday.
Details of the proposals emerged as Al-Jazeera news channel began late on Sunday to release the first of some 1,600 documents known as the 'Palestine Papers' on more than 10 years of secret US-brokered Middle East peace talks.
The files, shared with Britain's Guardian newspaper, caused surprise and anger among Palestinian leaders, with chief negotiator Saeb Erakat saying they contained 'lies' and president Mahmud Abbas saying they distorted the issue.
Described by Al-Jazeera and the Guardian as 'the most important leak in the history of the conflict,' the papers include hundreds of official Palestinian transcripts from private meetings with the Israelis.
Central to the revelations is a series of far-reaching Palestinian offers regarding Jewish settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, the scope of which have never been made public.
'What is in that paper gives them the biggest Yerushalaim in Jewish history,' Mr Erakat said in one of the documents, using the Hebrew name for the Holy City. He was talking about a Palestinian offer in 2008 which would allow Israel to keep all but one of its settlements in east Jerusalem as well as the walled Old City's Jewish Quarter and part of the Armenian Quarter. -- AFP
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