Among the leaked documents that purportedly show what Palestinian officials offered Israel during 10 years of peace negotiations, there are maps that bolster the veracity of the documents.
One of the maps released this week is called the “napkin map” and supposedly shows what former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008. Olmert refused to put his offer on paper, but it was an open secret that Abbas sketched it on a napkin that was secreted away until this week.
The maps and documents, including e-mails and a paper trail by Palestinian leaders, were leaked this week by Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera. More information can be found at http://bit.ly/hJSlDU.
The reports are said to show how close the two sides are on some issues — for example, which side would control certain Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. But the documents also show that gaps on other issues remain far from resolution, particularly regarding Jewish settlements deep inside the West Bank.
The map detailing former Olmert’s alleged offer to the Palestinian side shows Israel giving 5.5 percent of territory in Israel proper in exchange for 6.8 percent of the West Bank. The swaps that Ahmed Qureia, a former PA prime minister and a top negotiator, reportedly proposed in January 2008 to then–Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were a 1-to-1 ratio and amounted to trading less than 2 percent of the West Bank to Israel.
The Palestinians want recognition of the rights of Palestinian refugees and their descendants from Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, but they also acknowledge that the refugees ultimately will remain where they are living now. — jta