The Palestine Papers: The Palestinian Authority Tries to Hit Back

Last night Al Jazeera completed three days of special broadcasts on the "Palestine Papers", the more than 1600 internal documents about the Palestinian negotiations with Israel from 1999 to 2010. The documents themselves carry on, posted not only by Al Jazeera but also by The Guardian of London.

On Tuesday, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, tried to strike back, calling the documents "fake". He told the crowd denouncing the Qatari regime, which owns Al Jazeera:

The Palestinian principles ... have not and will not change and the first of them is that East Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine. No one in the world can make us give up on a centimeter of our land, the issue of the refugees or the issue of Jerusalem.

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that his life was in danger with "a vicious smear campaign" alleging major concessions in peace talks with Israel. Erekat added:

These documents are being taken out of context. Somebody wants to push this region towards chaos.

The Hamas leadership in Gaza had a far different reaction about the exposure of its rival in the PA and the Fatah Party. Osama Hamdan said the papers showed that Palestinians had been "betrayed" by negotiators. He added:

They were selling parts of East Jerusalem when they were saying they were committed to East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. 

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar urged refugees everywhere to protest.

On the Israeli side, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aides said:

Documents show that the Palestinian demand over the last year and a half to freeze construction in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem is ridiculous, since it is clear that they had already conceded the aforementioned neighborhoods in negotiations during Olmert's tenure.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reacted quickly:

Even the most left-wing government of Olmert and [then Foreign Minister Tzipi] Livni did not manage to reach a peace agreement, despite the many concessions.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said: "We don't deny that this release will at least for a time make the situation more difficult than it already was."

Though Ramallah seems to be under heavy bombardment for the time being, Haaretz's Aluf Benn thinks West Jerusalem may pay a price soon:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be enjoying the embarrassment caused to his two rivals, Livni and Abbas. But 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. Just look, they'll say, we drew a map and agreed to effectively give up the right of return, and got nothing.