Ramallah: A senior Fatah official yesterday said that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will file a case against Al Jazeera TV channel which, he claimed, is working on creating problems between the Palestinian leadership and Arab countries.

The Fatah official, who did not want to be named, told Gulf News that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) will hold a meeting in a couple of days to discuss the Palestine Papers and possible political and diplomatic steps to be taken between the leadership and Qatar.

He said that the PLO and the PNA will propose to the Arab League for commissioning a committee to investigate the credibility of those leaks.

“The content of the leaks is unbelievable. No Palestinian would dare to offer the Israelis such proposals,” he said.
“The Israelis would be extremely happy to go ahead and sign a peace agreement with the Palestinians should the published leaks were true and complete,” he said.

“The same Palestinian negotiators and the leadership are seeking to isolate Israel diplomatically,” he said.

“A negotiator is a mere representative of all the Palestinians. He has to state the opinions of the public but does not have the right and authority to decide on national issues,” he said.

“Yasser Arafat’s Camp David ceiling which the Palestinians have agreed on unanimously was the minimum and it was refused. How can any Palestinian cross that red line and propose much less,” he said.

“Everything proposed by the Palestinians or offered by the Americans and the Israelis has been discussed in detail by the Arabs and decided by the Arab League Middle East Peace Process Follow-Up Committee. Would the leaks mean that the Arabs had already accepted the claimed Palestinian proposals?” he said.

“The discussions of negotiators cannot be misused the way Al Jazeera did,” he said. “Al Jazeera has its own agenda and targets which will be exposed,” he said.

“Therefore, the timing of the publication of these leaks should be questioned. And whose interests are served here?” asked the official.

The official said that the timing indicates a serious attempt to target President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the preliminary investigations, two employees at the Negotiations Affairs Department have copied these documents from the computers and sold them to Al Jazeera, he said.

Commenting on the possibility that a top Fatah figure (Mohammad Dahlan) has leaked these documents and that he has acted in revenge after he was officially accused and his public role frozen, the Fatah official said that there was a minor possibility. “The investigations will shortly reveal the names and roles of those involved,” he said.