Leaked papers reveal Palestinian 'offer' over Jerusalem

PALESTINIAN negotiators secretly told Israel it could keep vast swathes of occupied east Jerusalem, according to leaked documents that show Palestinians offering much bigger concessions than previously revealed.

The documents, obtained by the Al-Jazeera television channel, could undermine the position of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, whose public declarations about Jerusalem are at odds with what his officials were promising in private.

Equally sobering for the Palestinian people, who want to create a state on land Israel seized in a 1967 war, is the fact that Israel offered nothing in return for the concessions and turned down the offer, saying it did not go far enough. However, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dismissed the documents as "a bunch of lies".

The leaked minutes of a 2008 meeting between Palestinian, US and Israeli officials showed a senior Palestinian proposing that Israel annex all but one of its major Jerusalem settlements as part of a broad deal to end their decades-old conflict.

Al-Jazeera said it had other documents that it would shortly publish showing the Palestinians were also ready to make other massive concessions on the hugely sensitive issue of the right to return for Palestinian refugees.