<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[ei: Refugee rights of little concern to PA, documents&nbsp;reveal]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span class="text14">Report, <em>The Electronic Intifada,</em> 25 January 2011</p>
<p><span class="content"> </span></span></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" width="483" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="https://i2.wp.com/electronicintifada.net/artman2/uploads/3/101007-palestinian-refugees_1.jpg" border="1" alt="" width="483" height="322" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="text11">The Palestine Papers reveals how Palestinian negotiators bartered the rights of refugees. (<a href="http://www.maanimages.com/">MaanImages</a>)</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><span class="text14"><span class="content"><br />
More has been revealed in the Palestine Papers, Al Jazeera&#8217;s expose that  uncovers internal documents and secret correspondence from the last  decade of negotiations between the Israeli government, the  Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and the United States.</p>
<p>Yesterday the network, which has shared its information with the UK&#8217;s <em>Guardian</em> newspaper, released documents related to several &#8220;core issues,&#8221; including the Palestinian refugees&#8217; right of return.</p>
<p>Also released were papers detailing plans by the Israeli government to  barter the citizenship of Palestinians in Israel in an effort to create a  purely Jewish state, and minutes of meetings outlining the  recalcitrance of the administration of US President Barack Obama to  abide by previous policy agreements.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera began releasing its cache of more than 1,600 documents on Sunday, with the first batch related to <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11745.shtml">dramatic concessions by the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority</a> on the issue of illegal Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and &#8220;land  swaps.&#8221; The network labeled the dealings as &#8220;unprecedented&#8221; in the  decades-long history of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.</p>
<p>The Electronic Intifada&#8217;s co-founder and executive director, Ali  Abunimah, has been given special access to the documents and has helped  analyze them for Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>Monday&#8217;s release of documents expose startling concessions by the PA on  the rights of Palestinian refugees, a key issue since Israel&#8217;s  establishment and the ethnic cleansing of approximately 800,000  indigenous Palestinians in 1947-48.</p>
<p>The Palestine Papers reveal that PA leaders were willing to limit the  number of Palestinian refugees able to return to their homeland to only  &#8220;a symbolic amount&#8221; &#8212; one document put the number at ten thousand per  year for a period of ten years. There are more than five million  Palestinian refugees in the global diaspora, including hundreds of  thousands in refugee camps inside the occupied West Bank, including East  Jerusalem; the Gaza Strip; Lebanon; Syria and Jordan.</p>
<p>In March 2007, Palestine Liberation Organization chief negotiator Saeb  Erekat said that Palestinian refugees &#8220;would not have voting rights on a  possible peace deal with Israel,&#8221; wrote Laila al-Arian (&#8220;<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011124123324887267.html">PA selling short the refugees</a>,&#8221; Al Jazeera English, 24 January 2011).</p>
<p>&#8220;I never said the diaspora will vote,&#8221; Erekat stated during a meeting  with then foreign minister of Belgium Karel De Gucht in March 2007.  &#8220;It&#8217;s not going to happen. The referendum will be for Palestinians in  Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Can&#8217;t do it in Lebanon. Can&#8217;t do  it in Jordan.&#8221;</p>
<p>Al Jazeera stated that the papers &#8220;also reveal that then-Israeli Prime  Minister Ehud Olmert proposed that 1,000 Palestinian refugees be allowed  to return annually to Israel over a period of five years &#8212; totaling  just 5,000, a tiny fraction of those displaced after Israel&#8217;s creation.&#8221;</p>
<p>Al Jazeera added, &#8220;While Erekat conceded the rights of Palestinian  refugees to determine their own fate, during such meetings Israeli  negotiators made clear their vision for the refugees.&#8221;</p>
<p>Following those concessions, in June 2008 then foreign minister Tzipi  Livni flatly told the Palestinian negotiations team that Israel would  not budge on the issue of Palestinian right of return. &#8220;&#8230; [T]hey  should instead hope for charity &#8216;from [Microsoft founder Bill] Gates and  his like,'&#8221; Livni stated (&#8220;<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/20111241517890936.html">Qurei to Livni: &#8220;I&#8217;d vote for you&#8221;</a>,&#8221; 24 January 2011).</p>
<p>Livni subsequently rejected any right of return for Palestinian  refugees, Al Jazeera reported, telling former PA Prime Minister Ahmed  Qurei that &#8220;we will not agree to 194.&#8221; United Nations resolution 194  guarantees the right of Palestinian refugees expelled since 1948 to  return to their land and homes.</p>
<p>Condoleezza Rice, then US Secretary of State under President George W.  Bush, suggested Chile and Argentina as possible states that could absorb  Palestinian refugees, the Palestine Papers also show.</p>
<p>Additional documents reveal plans by Israeli leaders to purge its  Palestinian citizens by way of &#8220;land swaps,&#8221; in an effort to build a  purely Jewish state. Al Jazeera revealed that Livni and Israeli  governmental advisors listed a number of Palestinian towns and villages  that they proposed would be annexed to a future Palestinian state (&#8220;<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011124105622779946.html">Expelling Israel&#8217;s Arab population?</a>,&#8221; 24 January 2011).</p>
<p>These land swaps would be implemented without the consent of  Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship, according to the Israeli plan.</p>
<p>Writing in Al Jazeera, The Electronic Intifada&#8217;s Ali Abunimah said that  Livni &#8220;made it clear that only Jews were guaranteed citizenship in  Israel and that Palestinian citizens do not really belong even though  they are natives who have lived on the land since before Israel existed&#8221;  (&#8220;<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112411450358613.html">A dangerous shift on 1967 lines</a>,&#8221; 24 January 2011).</p>
<p>Livni stated &#8220;Israel [is] the state of the Jewish people &#8212; and I would  like to emphasize the meaning of &#8216;its people&#8217; is the Jewish people &#8212;  with Jerusalem the united and undivided capital of Israel and of the  Jewish people for 3,007 years.&#8221;</p>
<p>It was also revealed that the Obama administration was willing to ignore  prior agreements under the George W. Bush-era &#8220;Road Map&#8221; in favor of  placating Israeli ambitions to continue the state&#8217;s illegal settlement  project, possibly opening the door to Israeli plans of &#8220;population  transfers.&#8221;</p>
<p>It was clear, Abunimah reported, that US envoy George Mitchell continued  to pressure the Palestinian negotiating team to &#8220;adopt formulas the  Palestinians feared would give Israel leeway to annex large parts of the  occupied West Bank without providing compensation.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, Mitchell did not demand of the Israeli side that they agree to  certain terms of reference for US-brokered peace negotiations. According  to Abunimah, &#8220;&#8230; the US position perhaps unwittingly opens the door to  dangerous Israeli ambitions to transfer &#8212; or ethnically cleanse &#8212;  non-Jewish Palestinian citizens of Israel in order to create an  ethnically pure &#8216;Jewish state.'&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The Obama administration&#8217;s failure to press Israel to accept the  international consensus that the Palestinian state would be established  on all the territories Israel occupied in 1967, except for minor  adjustments, dooms the two-state solution,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that despite the  upset following the Palestine Papers leak, she believes the negotiations  should continue.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, PA officials have admonished Al Jazeera for the document  leak, with top officials calling the Palestine Papers &#8220;fabricated&#8221; (&#8220;<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/01/2011123234940952149.html">PA negotiators reject leaked report</a>,&#8221; 24 January 2011).</p>
<p>Speaking on Al Jazeera English on 24 January, PLO official Nabil Shaath  acknowledged the veracity of the documents published by Al Jazeera. Al  Jazeera says the network &#8220;will not reveal the source(s), or detail how  they came into our possession.&#8221; More Palestine Papers documents will be  released in the coming days.</p>
<p>The network said that it will expose information on the &#8220;security  cooperation&#8221; plans between the PA and Israel, as well as documents  including &#8220;private exchanges between Palestinian and American  negotiators in late 2009, when the Goldstone report [on the 2008-09  Israeli assault on Gaza] was being discussed at the United Nations.&#8221;</p>
<p>The entire Palestine Papers archive is being made available online on the Al Jazeera English website: &#8220;<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/">http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/</a>&#8220;.</span></p>
<p><strong>Latest articles on EI:</strong></span></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/opeds.shtml"><strong>Opinion/Editorial</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11749.shtml">Palestine Papers confirm Israeli rejectionism</a> (25 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/theroleofthemedia.shtml"><strong>Role of the Media</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11748.shtml">Refugee rights of little concern to PA, documents reveal</a> (25 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/israellobbywatch.shtml"><strong>Israel Lobby Watch</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11746.shtml">Democracy under threat over EI funding, Dutch groups say</a> (24 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/activismwire.shtml"><strong>Activism News</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11744.shtml">Boycott vote in Sydney suburb sparks media furor, death threats</a> (24 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/theroleofthemedia.shtml"><strong>Role of the Media</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11745.shtml">Documents reveal PA offered Israel &#8220;biggest Yerushalayim&#8221; in history</a> (24 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/activismwire.shtml"><strong>Activism News</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11743.shtml">Activism roundup: Israeli forces fire at demonstrators</a> (21 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/diaries.shtml"><strong>Diaries: Live from Palestine</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11742.shtml">Gaza family remembers grandfather killed by Israeli bullet</a> (21 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/developmentwire.shtml"><strong>Development</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11741.shtml">It&#8217;s not just Tunisians who are hungry</a> (21 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/activismwire.shtml"><strong>Activism News</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11740.shtml">Boycott roundup: Ahava products off the shelves, for now</a> (20 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="text10"><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/palestine-news.shtml"><strong>Palestine</strong></a> :  <a style="text-decoration:none;" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/humanrightswire.shtml"><strong>Human Rights</strong></a>:   			<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11739.shtml">Jerusalem evictions, demolitions leave lasting trauma</a> (20 January 2011)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11748.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29">ei: Refugee rights of little concern to PA, documents reveal</a>.</p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://i2.wp.com/electronicintifada.net/artman2/uploads/3/101007-palestinian-refugees_1.jpg?fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>