Occupied Jerusalem: Palestinian negotiators offered in 2008 to cede vast swathes of annexed east Jerusalem(Occupied) in peace talks with Israel, Al Jazeera news channel reported on Sunday, citing "secret documents."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, however, questioned on the Doha-based 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 colonies 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 [colonies] in [occupied] Jerusalem except Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa)," 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 [occupied] Jerusalem 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.
The report comes as world powers seek ways to haul Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table after direct peace talks broke down last September in a dispute over Jewish colonies.
The United States on Sunday said it was reviewing the "alleged Palestinian documents."
"We cannot vouch for their veracity," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley in a Twitter post.
The Palestinians refuse to resume negotiations while Israel builds on land they want for a future state of their own.
In what it termed "shocking revelations," Al Jazeera said it had obtained more than 1,600 internal confidential documents from a decade of US-brokered peace negotiations.
They were to be disclosed in installments on the channel and its website.
