RAMALLAH, Jan 26 (JMCC) - Chief Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erekat said the Palestine Papers, the 1,600 leaked documents recently published by
Al-Jazeera, endanger his life, according to an interview with the BBC.
The documents revealed backroom deals between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, and unprecedented levels of compromise offered by Erekat and others on divisive issues: the Palestinian
right of return was limited to 100,000 people over a decade, management of the Haram Sharif was internationalized, and the boundaries of Israeli
Jerusalem were redrawn to incorporate many Jewish
settlements. The latest leaks detail cooperation between Israeli and
Palestinian Authority security forces to target an Al-Aqsa Brigade commander.
Today what is being practiced against us [by the al-Jazeera coverage] is that we are guilty, we should be executed, and then after our execution, we should be given an unfair trial, he told the BBC on Wednesday, following his return to Ramallah from meetings in Cairo.
While criticizing the leaks, Erekat acknowledged some of the revelations were true. Today,
protesters in Ramallah rallied against Al-Jazeera, not Erekat or
Fatah, calling the Qatari news agency Zionist.
Perhaps, the leaks serve some Palestinian goal, Roee
Ruttenberg writes in +972 magazine. In the past, leaks have been used by governments to gauge public opinion, advance factions within administrations, or split parties.
Read more at the
BBC...