Leaked confidential records of Middle East talks reveal that Palestinian negotiators privately agreed to allow Israel to keep all but one of its illegal settlements in East Jerusalem.
According to documents obtained by Arabic news network Al Jazeera, the Palestinian Authority made the offer in 2008, but the Israelis apparently rejected the concession.
The documents reveal a peace process that is threadbare at best and a Palestinian leadership seemingly desperate to make some kind of deal, the BBC reports.
There is verbatim record of a meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in May 2008 where the Palestinians accept that almost all of the Jewish settlements or suburbs built around East Jerusalem by Israel since 1967 will remain in Israeli hands after any peace deal.
There were still significant disagreements over several of the larger settlement blocks in the West Bank, which the Palestinians insisted had been evacuated and the Israelis insisted they must retain.
Al Jazeera says it has 16,076 confidential records of meetings, emails, communications between Palestinian, Israeli and United States leaders covering the years 2000-2010.
The papers are believed to have leaked from the Palestinian side. But chief negotiator Saeb Erekat appeared to challenge their authenticity, saying the Palestinian leadership had nothing to hide and that the leaks are "a pack of lies".
