Document reveals Israel once offered concessions to Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered concessions to the Palestinians in 2013 in order to create a framework for peace agreement, according to Yedioth Ahronoth daily Friday.

The Hebrew newspaper published a document dating to August 2013, summing up the details of secret talks between Netanyahu's senior adviser to the negotiations and the Palestinians.

The talks took place between 2009 and 2013, in Netanyahu's previous tenure as prime minister, and prior to the U.S.-mediated peace negotiations, which took place between July 2013 and April 2014.

The document, dubbed "Draft Proposal for Statement on Principles towards a Permeant Arraignment" details the concessions list the Israeli leader was willing to make in order to reach a future deal with the Palestinians.

It includes an Israeli return to the pre-1967 line (meaning evacuating the territories Israel occupied in the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast War), a basic Palestinian pre-condition for a peace agreement with land swaps.

It also agrees to the evacuation of several West Bank Jewish settlements with the possibility of leaving Jewish settlers living under the Palestinian Authority's control.

"(There) will be full Israeli withdrawal implemented gradually from Palestine's territory. The last of the Israeli forces will withdraw with the implementation of the agreement's final stage," the document said.

"The sides are in agreement that Palestine will be an independent, sovereign and viable state whose size will be in relation to the areas which were under Jordan and Egypt's control before 1967, and that the agreement establishing the formation of Palestine will permanently resolve all claims, including the issue of settlements," the document read.

It also stated that "Israelis who will choose to remain in the Palestinian state will live under Palestinian jurisprudence."

The document also implicitly recognizes the Palestinians' claim for east Jerusalem, according to the daily (though objects to east Jerusalem announced as the capital of the Palestinian state), and that the Palestinians were offered a foothold in the Jordan Valley.

This is in sharp contrast to the Israel's stand in last year's negotiations, in which Israel insisted on keeping soldiers in the valley for several years, a demand which the Palestinian did not accept.

The reported document also suggested some room for leverage with regards to the issue of the right of return -- for the Palestinians who fled their homes amid the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, suggesting requests would be reviewed on a personal, rather than a national, basis.

Netanyahu's Office said in response to the newspaper's report that "at no point did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to withdraw to 1967-lines, divide Jerusalem or recognize the Palestinian right of return.

That was and remains his position." Furthermore, the office said the document was an American proposal that Israel never signed on.

"The (2009-2013) talks were brokered by the Americans and failed to yield any agreement. They focused on an attempt to create an American proposal to moving negotiations forward, with each side maintaining the right to express reservations from any of the articles they found unacceptable," the office added in its response to the document.

The recent round of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians ended in April, following the Palestinian establishment of the unity government with Hamas, and after the negotiations came to a halt on several key issues, among them Israeli security demands and the ongoing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Since then, the security situation escalated between Palestinians and Jews, especially in Jerusalem and the West Bank, with random attacks against Israelis and clashes and wide protests between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Following the Palestinian Authority's attempt to join several international treaties, orchestrate a unilateral announcement of a Palestinian state and an end to the Israeli occupation, and possibly prosecute Israel for war crimes in the Hague international tribune, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided to freeze more than 100 million U.S. dollars in tax money Israel collects on the Palestinian Authority.

On Thursday, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) decided to halt the ongoing security coordination between Israel and the Palestinians.

It is yet unclear whether the PLO's decision will be binding for the Palestinian Authority, but it does point out to the deterioration between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in recent months.

The ongoing security coordination between the two sides has been conducted since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Endit