In a sharply-worded rebuke, chief negotiator Saeb Erakat charged that the Qatar-based satellite channel was participating in a campaign to discredit and overthrow the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking to AFP, Erakat accused Al-Jazeera of trying provoke the Palestinian people into "a revolution against their leaders in order to bring down the Palestinian political system."

His accusations were made two days after Al-Jazeera began releasing more than 1,600 documents known as "The Palestine Papers" which have exposed some of the far-reaching concessions offered to Israel during 10 years of closed-door peace talks.

The revelations have deeply embarrassed and angered the Palestinian leadership, but Abbas on Tuesday tried to play down the impact of the revelations, dismissing the leaks as nothing but a "boring soap opera."

Arriving back at his Ramallah headquarters from Jordan, Abbas was greeted by hundreds of supporters, who were also demonstrating against Al-Jazeera and the Qatari authorities.

Some burned pictures of the Qatari emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, while others torched Israeli flags with the Al-Jazeera logo printed on them.

"This is a boring soap opera," Abbas told the crowd. "We know how to respond to it and how to deal with it.

"We have nothing to hide and there isn't a single document there that we didn't tell the Arab nations about, on an individual and collective basis," Abbas insisted.

"The Palestinian constants... have not changed and will not change, and the first among these constants is Jerusalem," he said, referring to the Arab eastern sector of the city which the Palestinians want as capital of their future state.

But in Hamas-ruled Gaza, several thousand demonstrators responded to a call from the Islamist movement to protest against the concessions offered by the "cowardly" Palestinian negotiators it said had acted as "collaborators of America".

The territory's Hamas authorities issued a statement saying that the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which is chaired by Abbas and of which Hamas is not a member, had "no right to negotiate in the name of the Palestinian people nor to give up any of its rights."

Erakat launched a bitter attack on Al-Jazeera, accusing it of participating in a US-Israeli "campaign" to "overthrow the Palestinian Authority because it is refusing to engage in negotiations while settlement activity continues and because it insists on going to the (UN) Security Council."

Labelling the leaks "despicable incitement," Erakat accused the channel of "implementing a plan on behalf of (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman," aimed at sabotaging Palestinian attempts to secure their promised state through diplomatic offensives.

"We are at a stage of unprecedented resistance and we're being made to pay the price for this," he said, as the Palestinians pursue plans to seek a UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement activity.

Erakat, who appears frequently in the leaked files, accused Al-Jazeera of being "selective" about the documents it revealed and said the Palestinian leadership was pursuing an inquiry into how the documents were obtained.

Contacted by AFP, Al-Jazeera said it did not wish to comment.

Erakat's remarks came a day after senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo accused the Qatari leader of being behind the leaks.

He charged that Sheikh Hamad had given the "green light" for a "campaign" against the Palestinian Authority.

earlier related report
US credibility at stake in UN vote: Palestinians
Doha (AFP) Jan 25, 2011 - Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath warned that Washington risks losing any credibility as a peace broker if it vetoes a UN Security Council resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement building.

He also confirmed the authenticity of the leaked "Palestine Papers" on peace talks with Israel that have stirred controversy over major concessions offered by the Palestinian side.

The Palestinians will address the 15-member Security Council "whether or not the United States wants it," Shaath told reporters late on Monday in Doha.

"If you use the veto against this resolution, you will forever lose what's left of your credibility as a sponsor of the peace process," he said, addressing the United States.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has not clarified whether Washington plans to veto the resolution, has described the Palestinian efforts as unhelpful.

"The only way that there will be a resolution of the conflict ... is through a negotiated settlement," she said last week. "We don't see action at the UN or any other forum as being helpful in bringing about this desired outcome."

But Shaath said the Palestinians had "14 members (of the UN Security Council) on our side," with the United States as the sole holdout.

"All of them including, Britain, France, Russia and China -- four of the five permanent members -- have informed us they will vote for the resolution which condemns Israeli settlement and calls for a freeze," he said.

The draft resolution against Israeli construction in the occupied Palestinian territories and annexed east Jerusalem was formally put to the Security Council last week with Lebanon, Brazil and South Africa as sponsors.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Ryad Mansour, said the resolution would help revive direct peace talks, which his side has rejected unless Israel renews a moratorium on settlement building that expired in late September.

The permanent members of the Security Council, including the United States, all have the right to veto UN resolutions.

Shaath also criticised the Doha-based satellite television Al-Jazeera for publishing "secret documents" from the peace negotiations with Israel but admitted the authenticity of certain documents.

The documents reveal major concessions by the Palestinian leadership on the thorny issues of annexed east Jerusalem and the right of return of refugees.

Certain documents, which he said match those in his possession, "do exist but are non-binding and when we reach a full agreement, even that agreement will be non-binding until it is presented to a referendum," he said.

"You have them all because, to my knowledge, you have taken all the documents we had" which "express the position of the Palestine Liberation Organisation," Shaath said.

The remarks by Palestinian officials in the documents were "fragmented and taken out of context," Shaath has told reporters.

Al-Jazeera began on Sunday to release the first of some 1,600 documents known as the Palestine Papers on more than 10 years of secret US-brokered Middle East peace talks.

The files, shared with Britain's Guardian newspaper, caused surprise and anger among Palestinian leaders. Chief negotiator Saeb Erakat at first said they contained "lies" and president Mahmud Abbas said they were distorted.

The papers include hundreds of official Palestinian transcripts from private meetings with the Israelis.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News