In October 2009, PA President Mahmoud Abbas withdrew Palestinian support for sending the Goldstone report to the UN General Assembly for possible action, a move which would have been a first of many steps toward possible war crimes tribunals.
Quoting the minutes of a 2009 meet between chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat and U.S. Mideast envoys George Mitchell and Davie Hale, the Al Jazeera report showed Washington as trying to sway the PA from backing a UN resolution supporting Goldstone, asking that the Palestinians "refrain from pursuing or supporting any initiative directly or indirectly in international legal forums that would undermine that atmosphere".
Erekat's response, according to the report, which was also released by the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, was to tell Mitchell: "On going to the UN we will always co-ordinate with you."
The chief Palestinian negotiator is later quoted as being unhappy as to the results of the Palestinian delay of the UN resolution, saying "first public response to the Goldstone thing came from Lieberman, who said Abu Mazen agreed to postpone the vote because the Israelis threatened to release the 'tapes' showing him coordinating the attack on Gaza with Israel."
Abbas' aides defended the step at the time, saying the Palestinians needed more time to win international support for the UN report.
Another document back to October 2009, the PA negotiator told Mitchell, "Ahmadinejad is in Gaza and Lebanon. Pakistan is going failed. The Arab states are doing nothing."
Erekat stated that Abbas tried to persuade a Palestinian businessman to contribute $50 million to a radio station for the Iranian opposition after the country's elections in 2009, reported the Guardian.
He cited this request as evidence of the PA’s support for US strategic goals in the region. "If other countries think they can use Hamas as a card we will do the same with them. We are not running a charity. Iran is playing games, they are using Hamas as a card."
Al-Jazeera recently began leaking 1,600 secret documents on Middle East negotiations, which reveal many significant concessions made by the Palestinian Authority in the past years, mostly documents signed by Erekat.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera yesterday, Erekat defied the leaks by accusing U.S. citizen Clayton Swisher, who currently works at Al-Jazeera as a reporter, and used to serve as a bodyguard in the U.S. State Department during the Clinton administration, and British citizen Alastair Crooke, a former MI6 and EU official, are the ones responsible for leaking the Palestine Papers. Crooke is considered close to officials in Hamas.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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