watches Palestinians question 'offers' leaked by al-Jazeera

we are enjoy Palestinians question 'offers' leaked by al-Jazeera
The Palestinian Authority has accused al-Jazeera TV of distortion, after it leaked documents purporting to show offers of major concessions to Israel.

Mr Qurei (R) is said to have proposed concessions over East Jerusalem

President Mahmoud Abbas said the leaks had deliberately confused Palestinian and Israeli negotiating positions.

The documents suggest the Palestinians agreed to Israel annexing all but one settlement in occupied East Jerusalem - an offer Israel apparently rejected.

The BBC has been unable to verify the documents independently.

Al-Jazeera says it has more than 1,600 confidential records of meetings, e-mails, and communications between Palestinian, Israeli and US leaders covering the years 2000-2010.

The Palestinians are reported to have proposed an international committee to take over Islamic and Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem, and limiting the number of returning refugees to 100,000 over 10 years.

The papers are believed to have originated from the Palestinian side.

Mr Abbas, who is due to hold talks on the peace process on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said negotiations had been carried out openly, and his fellow Arab leaders were aware of their contents.
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Watch Palestinians reject Israeli offer on settlement freeze

Palestinians reject Israeli offer on settlement freeze

All settlements on occupied territory are considered illegal under international law
Palestinian officials have rejected an offer by the Israeli government to halt settlement construction if they recognise Israel as a "Jewish state".

The Palestinians said they already recognised the state of Israel, and that the real issue threatening peace talks was illegal settlement activity.

Israel has been under international pressure to renew its partial freeze on construction in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks over the issue.

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Israel and the Palestinians

Mid-East talks: Where they stand
Q&A: Resuming direct talks
Confusion surrounds Arab summit
Hope and anger as freeze expires
The direct negotiations only resumed last month after a 20-month hiatus, and no meeting has been held since the freeze ended on 26 September.

'Seizing initiative'
In a speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "If the Palestinian leadership will say unequivocally to its people that it recognises Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, I will be prepared to convene my cabinet and request an additional suspension of building for a limited period of time."

"Undoubtedly such a step by the Palestinian Authority would be a confidence-building measure that will open a new horizon of hope as well as trust among broad parts of the Israeli public," he added.

Mr Netanyahu said he had made the offer to the Palestinian Authority "in quiet ways" last month, but that it had been rejected.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Mr Netanyahu was "playing games" with his offer, and that there was no connection between settlements and the national character of Israel.

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Analysis


Wyre Davies
BBC News, Jerusalem
The swift rejection of this proposal by Palestinian negotiators would have come as little surprise to Benjamin Netanyahu.

He knew that no Palestinian official would, at least at this stage, agree to recognise Israel explicitly as a Jewish state.

This was a tactical gesture by an Israeli prime minister who has been shifting uncomfortably in the spotlight for several weeks as peace talks with the Palestinians have stagnated - and everyone was looking for him to make a move.

By offering a renewed building freeze in the settlements, with attached conditions, Mr Netanyahu is hoping that the spotlight will switch to the Palestinians.

Gambling that the tactic won't anger those in his own right-wing coalition who oppose the freeze, the key response now, will be that from the US.

Washington has been among those repeatedly calling on the Israel to extend the freeze.

If the Obama administration deduces that this is a genuine move on Israel's part, some pressure may have indeed been lifted from Mr Netanyahu's shoulders to those of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

"I don't see a relevance between his obligations under international law and him trying to define the nature of Israel," he added. "I hope he will stop playing these games and will start the peace process by stopping settlements."

Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements. They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
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Israel and Palestinians agree to direct peace talks

We are enjoy Israel and Palestinians agree to direct peace talks

Israel and the Palestinians have accepted an invitation by the United States and other powers to restart direct talks on September 2 in a modest step toward forging a deal within 12 months to create a Palestinian state and peacefully end one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President Barack Obama on September 1, before formally resuming direct negotiations the following day at the State Department in Washington.

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"There have been difficulties in the past, there will be difficulties ahead," Clinton said in a statement.

Clinton added that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah also were invited to the talks, which will mark the first direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in 20 months.

"I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region," Clinton said.

Clinton's announcement was echoed by the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- which issued its own invitation to the talks and underscored that a deal could be reached within a year.

Netanyahu quickly accepted the U.S. invitation and said reaching a deal would be possible but difficult.

"We are coming to the talks with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security," a statement from his office said.

After a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian leadership announced its acceptance of the invitation for face-to-face peace talks with Israel.

But Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, warned that the Palestinians would pull out of the new talks if the Israelis allow a return to settlement building on lands that the Palestinians seek for a future state.

Israel's 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank is due to end on September 26.

The invitation to the talks "contains the elements needed to provide for a peace agreement," Palestinian leaders said.

"It can be done in less than a year," Erekat said. "The most important thing now is to see to it that the Israeli government refrains from settlement activities, incursions, fait accomplis policies."

The two sides are coming together for talks after decades of hostility, mutual suspicion and a string of failed peace efforts.

The Quartet statement was aimed at the Palestinians, who believe that the group's repeated calls for Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank and accept a Palestinian state within the borders of land occupied since the 1967 Middle East war are a guarantee of the parameters for the talks.

Clinton's invitation was aimed at Netanyahu, agreeing with his demand that the talks should take place "without preconditions" and giving little sense of any terms that the Israeli leader fears could box him in.
Coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-and-palestinians-agree-to-direct-peace-talks-2058419.html