OCCUPIED JERUSALEM--Palestinian negotiators offered in 2008 to cede vast swathes of annexed occupied east Jerusalem in peace talks with Israel, Al Jazeera news channel reported on Sunday night, citing "secret documents". Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, however, questioned on the Doha-based TV channel, said the Palestinian leadership had "nothing to hide" and dismissed most of the report as "a pack of lies". "We are offering you the biggest Yerushalayim in Jewish history," chief negotiator Erakat is quoted as telling Livni, using the Jewish name for the Holy City. On refugees, he is said to have offered to accept the return of only 100,000 out of the Palestinians who fled at the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and their descendants, now numbering almost five million. But Erakat scoffed at the reports. Al Jazeera said the Occupied Jerusalem areas offered were where Jewish settlements have been built, including French Hill, Ramat Alon and Gilo, as well as the Jewish Quarter and a part of the Armenian Quarter in Occupied Jerusalem's Old City. Israel, the Arab satellite channel added, offered nothing in return for what it called the "historic concession" from the Palestinians, in the documents which Britain's The Guardian newspaper said it was also leaking. Al Jazeera said the concessions came at a June 2008 meeting in Occupied Jerusalem between Condoleezza Rice, then US secretary of state, then Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and ex-Palestinian premier Ahmad Qorei, and Erakat. "This last proposition could help in the swap process," Qorei is quoted as saying in the "Palestine Papers." "We proposed that Israel annexes all settlements in Jerusalem (Occupied) except Jabal Abu Ghneim ," he said in the documents, as cited by the news channel. "This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition; we refused to do so in Camp David," he added, referring to the US-hosted 2000 Camp David peace talks attended by late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But "the Israeli side refused to even place Jerusalem(Occupied) on the agenda, let alone offer the PA (Palestinian Authority) concessions in return for its historic offer," the report said. Qorei told Livni at the June 2008 meeting, however, there would be no concessions on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, according to the Palestine Papers.
