In January, 2011, Al-Jazeera television published 1,600 pages of confidential papers and memoranda from the last five years of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Over the last ten years, Israel has said to its people and the world, 'There is no partner for peace.' And the Palestinian Authority has said to its people, 'We will not give up Palestinian territory or rights.' The Palestinian Papers, when read in their entirety, show both of these statements to be false.
This book, published within three months of the leaked papers, presents complete texts of a number of the most important papers, along with a commentary on why they are so important to the unfolding events in the Middle East.
The issues discussed in confidence in the papers cover the Israeli illegal settlements, the Hamas rockets, the Israeli Wall, the invasion of Gaza, the rights of Palestinian refugees, and the move to define Israel as an exclusively Jewish state – all of them hot topics which will continue to be relevant in future peace talks, if they ever resume.