Pali-leaks?

By: Lisa Fiorilli

If you have been paying attention to any international news media, the Al-Jazeera leak of 1600 diplomatic documents, namely proposals, emails, notes, internal memos, has dominated the airwaves, even in the midst of popular revolt in Egypt and impending political strife in Lebanon. Al-Jazeera, a Qatari news network that can be categorized as the Arab CNN, has reportedly gained access to these files that document that peace process between 1999-2010. Though they are obviously not willing to disclose their source for safety reasons, they have attested to their veracity.
This has created an uproar in the Middle East, because the Palestinians are seen as conceding formerly non-negotiable critical concessions. This includes a marked concession on the right of return for Palestinians, a formidable concession of East Jerusalem to Israel and other settlement sites.
Why is this important? In these documents, Palestinian leaders are shown to be essentially conceding all of the points that previously had been integral to their demands. This has understandably caused anger on the part of Palestinians. Though the Palestinian leadership had originally called the documents 'fakes', they have recently admitted they are indeed real, however they are taken out of context, and in some cases they accuse Al-Jazeera of intentionally distorting the documents to portray the Palestinian negotiators as weak.

The Israeli media has viewed the leaks as a dramatic reversal from the popular rhetoric of the Palestinian Authority. They have emphasized that though the PA has publicly decried settlement activity, they were internally debating on reneging on most of their most popular demands. This would inevitably damage the legitimacy of the PA for most of the Arab world, and the Israeli newspapers portray it as such. A quote from the Jerusalem Post succinctly demonstrates the Israeli attitude towards the papers:

"With the Palestinian Authority making an international incident over every plan to build in Jewish Jerusalem Settlements beyond the Green Line, a cache of some 1600 documents - mostly from the Palestinian Negotiating Unit - shows that in 2008, the PA was willing to recognize eventual Israeli control over half those neighborhoods". 


Haaretz, another Jewish daily, has an entirely different interpretation of these documents. Instead, they have focused on the "missed opportunity" of Israeli leaders to draw up a peace solution though the Palestinians were willing to concede a vast majority of the disputed territory, not to mention relinquish both Jerusalem and the right of return. They emphasize that this demonstrates that the Israeli allegation of a "no-partner" situation was entirely false: the Palestinians were participating in negotiations quite actively.

"When the initial insult fades away, the Palestinians will be able to use the leaked documents to reinforce their claim that they have no partner on the Israeli side".


What about the Palestinian-Arab interpretation? Well, at the moment it can be categorized as a mix of indignation, embarrassment and anger. The official response has been to criticize Al-Jazeera of deliberately attributing the documents to the Palestinian side, when in fact they were Israeli proposals. Upon second glance, one cannot help but agree with his assertion that if they were in fact real, the Israeli delegation would have accepted. What is interesting is that the chief negotiator has confirmed the veracity of the documents, but adheres to the view that they are fundamentally informal, internal and taken out of context. Interestingly, Emirates 24/7 provides the interpretation that the rule of Abbas will be under greater threat, as he is seen as overtly conciliatory to the Israeli side. In sum, the majority of Arab media reports have focused on the widespread discrediting of both the peace process and the Palestinian Authority.

What are the implications of this situation? Will it help or hinder the peace process?




Links:
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112214310263628.html
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=204914
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestine-papers-show-true-partners-for-mideast-peace-1.338985
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12263671
http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/mideast-on-edge-over-jazeera-s-wikileaks-2011-01-25-1.346671

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/4723/World/Region/Abbas-says-AlJazeera-leaks-on-Israel-talks-confuse.aspx
http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/jazeera-leaks-shock-anger-palestinian-officials-2011-01-24-1.346320

Photo: Mideast Foreign Policy