Ramallah: Palestinian chief negotiator
Saeb Erakat On Tuesday accused Al-Jazeera television of
participating in a campaign aimed at overthrowing the
Palestinian Authority.
His accusations were made two days after the
Doha-based satellite channel began releasing more than 1,600
documents known as "The Palestine Papers."
The files expose some of the concessions offered to
Israel during 10 years of secret peace talks and have
embarrassed and angered the Palestinian leadership.
Erakat accused Al-Jazeera of trying to provoke the Palestinian people into "a revolution against their leaders in order to bring down the Palestinian political system."
He also attacked the channel for participating in what
he suggested was a US-Israeli "campaign" aimed at
"overthrowing the Palestinian Authority because it is refusing
to engage in (peace) 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.
"We notice that what was published, even on Jerusalem
and the refugees, was only two pages."
He also said the Palestinian leadership had set up a
probe to look into how the documents were obtained.
On Sunday, Erakat rejected the report as a "pack of
lies" and said much of the information had been taken out of
context.
A day later, a senior aide to president Mahmud Abbas
accused the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of
being behind the leaks.
Yasser Abed Rabbo said the ruler had given his "green
light" to a "campaign" against the Palestinian Authority.
Erakat said today that Al-Jazeera was engaged in a
campaign of incitement, which had prompted a wave of protest
across the Arab world.
"Al-Jazeera has set alight the situation in Tunisia
and Lebanon and various other Arab countries," he charged,
saying they were trying to do the same in the Palestinian
territories.
PTI
