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The Palestinians offered Israel major concessions on east Jerusalem and on the issue of refugees in 2008 peace talks, according to leaked documents angrily dismissed as 'distortions' on Monday.
Details of the proposals emerged late on Sunday when the Al-Jazeera satellite channel began publishing the first of more than 1,600 documents known as the 'Palestine Papers' which cover more than 10 years of secret Middle East peace talks.
The documents, which were also shared with British paper the Guardian, provoked surprise and anger among the Palestinian leadership, with chief negotiator Saeb Erakat dismissing them as 'full of distortions' and president Mahmud Abbas insisting his government had nothing to hide.
Described by Al Jazeera and the Guardian as 'the most important leak in the history of the conflict,' the papers include hundreds of official Palestinian transcripts from private meetings with the Israelis.
Central to the revelations was a series of far-reaching Palestinian offers regarding Jewish settlements in occupied east Jerusalem which were made by in 2008, the scope of which were never made public.
During series of meetings that year, the Palestinians offered to let Israel keep all its settlements in east Jerusalem, with the exception of Har Homa, as well as the Jewish Quarter and part of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City. But Israel rejected the offer, saying it did not meet their demands, the papers show.
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