BICOM

Key Points

• Leaked PLO documents published by the Guardian this week detail far-reaching negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on final status issues including the future border between Israel and a Palestinian state. They cover mainly the Annapolis process, kick-started in 2007.
• The documents include a partial account of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s peace proposal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in August 2008.
• It is unclear exactly to what extent the documents have been chosen selectively, redacted or manipulated. Palestinian leaders, embarrassed by the accounts of their proposed concessions, have claimed publicly that the documents contain deliberate errors.
• The publication of the documents, coordinated by the Qatar based Al Jazeera news network, has widely been interpreted as a political attack on the moderate Palestinians led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

What is contained in the leaks?

• The Guardian has begun publishing documents today which they claim are leaked reports from the PLO’s Negotiation Support Unit (NSU) relating to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations between 1999 and 2009.
• There are over 1,600 documents in total, only a number of which have so far been released. They include detailed transcripts of negotiation sessions during the Annapolis process, led by then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala).
• The transcripts show extensive discussions on various issues, including territorial ones. One document records Palestinian proposals regarding which Israeli neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem would be annexed to Israel and under what terms. The documents testify to the extreme complexity and difficulty of the issues involved.
• The documents also include one which sets out some of the details from the significant peace proposal made by then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert to Palestinian President Abbas.
• The Guardian has chosen to put a heavy emphasis on the Palestinian concessions set out in some of the documents on the issues of territory, Jerusalem and refugees. In an editorial yesterday, the Guardian heavily criticised the Palestinian leadership as ‘weak, craven and eager to shower their counterparts with compliments,’ and called for the PA negotiators to be replaced with a joint negotiating team that includes Hamas.

Are the leaks accurate?

• Palestinian leaders Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmed Qureia and Saeb Erekat have all accused the documents of containing falsehoods. Israeli experts familiar with the negotiations have also noted what appear to be some deliberate inaccuracies. It is unclear exactly to what extent the documents have been chosen selectively, redacted or manipulated.
• The documents purport to come from the PLO’s Negotiation Support Unit, an internationally-funded Palestinian body that is meant to provide technical support to Palestinian negotiators. As NSU documents, they represent the Palestinian account of the discussions. There is no representation in these documents of the Israeli account of the meetings.
• At best, former negotiators for Israel regard these documents to be a partial and slanted snapshot of the negotiation process, which neither give a complete picture of the talks nor provide the full context surrounding them.

What do we know about the Annapolis process and is there anything new in these documents?

• The Annapolis process was launched at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007. Following the conference, Israel and the Palestinians engaged in months of intensive negotiations on final status issues. The negotiating teams were led by Tzipi Livni and Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala).
• In parallel, then-Israeli PM Olmert met routinely with Palestinian President Abbas. According to Olmert’s account, he tabled his own substantial proposal in August 2008, and showed Abbas a map detailing Israel’s proposed territorial compromises. The proposals included giving the Palestinians the equivalent of nearly 100% of the West Bank, as well as dividing Jerusalem. According to Olmert, Abbas did not respond to his proposals. The talks foundered after Olmert resigned as prime minister in September 2008.
• In the past, the Palestinians have publicly acknowledged that their own territorial proposals have included a land swap of around 2%, which would have allowed Israel to annex some West Bank settlements close to the Green Line.
• In an interview with Ha’aretz in 2008, PA President Mahmoud Abbas acknowledged that the Palestinians would have to compromise on refugees saying: ‘We understand that if we demand of you that all five million return to Israel, the State of Israel would be destroyed. But we must talk about compromise and see to what numbers you can agree.’
• Whilst providing an interesting insight into the detail and nature of closed-door negotiation sessions, the content of the proposals being discussed will come as no surprise to those who have followed Israeli-Palestinian talks over the last ten years.
• In 2000, the Clinton Parameters, accepted by the Israeli government of Ehud Barak, included the principle of land swaps. They also included the division of Jerusalem, based on Jewish neighbourhoods becoming part of Israel and Arab neighbourhoods becoming part of a Palestinian state. The unofficial Geneva Accords, signed by Israeli and Palestinian peace activists in 2003, detailed similar compromises.
• Olmert has talked openly about his peace proposals a number of times since stepping down as prime minister. Olmert’s memoirs are due to be serialised in Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot over the next three Fridays; the first instalment will deal with politics and are expected to touch on this subject.

What is the political significance and what will happen next?

• Speculation has begun into who leaked the documents and why. They are widely being interpreted as an attack on the moderate Palestinian leadership in the West Bank led by Mahmoud Abbas, and their current chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
• The media channel which received the documents and shared them with the Guardian is the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel. Al Jazeera has been accused by the PA leadrship of waging a campaign against it. The Qatari owners of Al Jazeera are supporters of Hamas.
• Analysts in Israel have also speculated that former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, a bitter opponent of Abbas within Fatah, might be involved in the leaks.
• The Guardian is to publish more from the documents in coming days. This will include details on significant but previously unknown Palestinian concessions on the Palestinian right of return; proposals from the Israeli government officials regarding moving some Arab citizens of Israel to a future Palestinian state; collaboration between Israeli military intelligence and Palestinian security services; involvement of British officials in a plan to crush Hamas; and information on how Palestinian leaders were told about Israel’s intentions to launch Operation Cast Lead in December 2008.

Further reading

BICOM Research Paper: Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, September 2010

BICOM Analysis: Olmert’s Peace Proposal, December 2009

BICOM Spotlight: The Issue of Borders (interactive resource with maps)