Character of the documents The
Palestine Papers include many
minutes of bilateral meetings between Israel and the Palestinians and with the US as well as minutes of joint trilateral meetings. They also include other documents, such as memos,
emails, letters, strategy papers, a matrix of positions and even maps of possible land swaps and
presentation slides. There were published 1,684 total documents, including: • 275 sets of meeting minutes; • 690 internal emails; • 153 reports and studies; • 134 sets of talking points and prep notes for meetings; • 64 draft agreements; • 54 maps, charts and graphs; • and 51 "non-papers".
Akiva Eldar, writing in
Haaretz, said that the documents are more important than those released by Wikileaks because they deal with current issues regarding permanent borders in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Settlements At a meeting in November 2007,
Tzipi Livni told
Ahmed Qurei that "I understand the sentiments of the Palestinians when they see the settlements being built. The meaning from the Palestinian perspective is that Israel takes more land, that the Palestinian state will be impossible, the Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state". According to the documents, in a meeting with Livni in Jerusalem, Qurei proposed that Israel annex all settlements along the border except for the large cities and towns of
Giv'at Ze'ev,
Ma'ale Adumim,
Ariel, and
Efrat. Livni rejected Qurei's demands that Israel cede these settlements. Qurei suggested to Livni that these settlements be placed under Palestinian sovereignty, but Livni told him "you know this is not realistic".
Condoleezza Rice similarly told Qurei that "I don't think that any Israeli leader is going to cede Ma'ale Adumim", to which Qurei replied "or any Palestinian". Rice then told him "Then you won't have a state!"
Napkin map "Napkin map" is a colloquial name for a Palestinian sketch made by Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas on a napkin, of a map with land swap proposals shown to him by then Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert during peace negotiations in mid-2008. According to Al Jazeera, Abbas was not allowed to keep the official map, so he sketched it by hand. During the first of several meetings, the Palestinian Authority proposed a land swap, offering Israel the opportunity to annex all of the Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem in return for land concessions by Israel. Olmert, however, offered no concessions in return but an even more aggressive land swap. In Prime Minister Olmert's own proposal, Israel would annex 6.3% of the West Bank. The land in Olmert's map included the four settlements of
Gush Etzion (with
Efrat),
Ma'ale Adumim,
Giv'at Ze'ev, and
Ariel, in addition to all settlements in East Jerusalem (
Har Homa). In exchange for those concessions by the Palestinian Authority, Olmert offered 5.8% This map was then later referred to as the
Napkin map.
Jerusalem According to one of the documents, the Palestinian Authority was prepared to concede most
Israeli settlements in
East Jerusalem, as well as the
Armenian Quarter, with the exception of
Har Homa. The
Temple Mount would be temporarily administrated by a joint body consisting of the Palestinian Authority, Israel,
Egypt,
Jordan,
Saudi Arabia, and the United States until a permanent solution was reached.
Security The minutes of the trilateral meeting on 26 August 2008 reveal that Israel not only demands a "demilitarized" Palestinian state, but also wants to keep control over borders, Jordan Valley and airspace, after withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the West Bank, for reasons of security.
Tzipi Livni: "In the Jordan Valley – what will be between Palestine and Jordan. EWS. [Early Warning Stations] ... the I is that we will have something on the crossings, borders, etc ... The idea is to withdraw, but to keep a presence, not close to the situation today, on the EWS, on passages ..."
Refugees Yankie Galenty, a media adviser for
Ehud Olmert, affirmed the complete authenticity of the documents in an interview. In regards to refugees, he stated that "Olmert, from day one, did not deceive Abu Mazen and told him that Israel will not allow the return of refugees and not one refugee will return to the land of Israel." Other officials in the Israeli government asked for a limited right of return numbering between five and ten thousand, out of a total of five million refugees, who would be carefully picked by Israel and allowed to stay under "humanitarian conditions". US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice proposed settling Palestinians refugees in
Argentina and
Chile as an alternative to letting them return to former homes in Israel and the occupied territories during a meeting. In her memoirs,
Condoleezza Rice wrote that Olmert initially proposed that Israel accept 5,000 Palestinians refugees. Abbas rejected the offer, saying, "I can't tell four million Palestinians that only 5,000 of them can go home". According to the second night of the Al-Jazeera broadcast, Israelis and Palestinians eventually agreed that Israel would accept 10,000 refugees. == Reactions ==