Israel/Palestine: Reacting to the Palestine Papers
Today, Al Jazeera English released the first of more than 1,600 internal documents from a decade of the Israel-Palestine Peace Process, dubbed the “Palestine Papers.” The papers released today make public a number of secret negotiations between Chief PLO Negotiator Saeb Erekat and the Israelis, including what Al Jazeera called “unprecedented compromises on the division of Jerusalem and its holy sites.”
Doha-based journalist Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell), reacting to the first releases, stated: “I think today may be remembered as the day the two-state solution died #palestinepapers.” The reactions that followed from around the region were no less strong.
Jordanian @Mayousef would likely agree, but is nonetheless unsurprised by the content of the Papers:
So we know those people on PLO are traitors I thought they are gonna come up with new stuff not details for old news #PalestinePapers
Italy-based @majdal, like Hounshell, sees this as the end:
What a disgusting situation. The PA won't last too long after this. #palestinepapers
While most of the criticism coming from Twitter is being levied broadly at the Palestinian Authority, in the opinion of many, Saeb Erekat deserves most of the blame:
@KonWomyn (location unknown), has this to say about Erekat:
Saeb Erekat now backtracking like he never made offer to Israel. Clearly amnesia's an essential disease in politics. #palestinepapers
Sudanese @simsimt, alluding to Erekat's assertion that the only thing he cannot be made into is a Zionist, believes Erekat's days as a politician are numbered:
The non-Zionist Saeb Erekat is a finished man. Who's next? #palestinepapers
Some individuals note that the blame goes beyond the Palestinian Authority. @Elizrael, based in Israel, has another point:
#PalestinePapers make the Palestinian leadership look bad, but think about how Israeli leaders come across – refusing peace time after time.
10 comments
Your Jerusalem contributor Harriet Sherwood suffers from the same myopic vision re the so-called ‘occupied’ West bank and the sick stabbing of a 3-year old child in an Israeli home there. Occupied – from whom? When? Why? A few simple questions that, when answered will, if truth is persued, will show why. To stop building in that area as a lever to the ‘peace process’ – The moratorium didn’t work before, the PA/Hamas intransigence at any real peace process some kind of joke; simply, they want Israel to disappear or prefereably, obliterated. I thought that honest reporting included facts and balance. Obviously not this time.
Excuse me? This peace is from January; I don’t understand what it has to do with more recent events or with the Guardian’s Sherwood.