Room VII-A · The Diplomatic Record
Every Peace Offer, Refused.
The corridor of Room VII records who ruled; this annex records what was declined — every formal offer of statehood, territory, or peace, tabulated with its response of record and its counter-proposals, where these could be located.
Eight formal offers of statehood, territory, or peace were extended to Arab or Palestinian leadership between 1937 and 2020 — by Britain, the United Nations, and successive Governments of Israel. None of the eight was accepted; six were refused without a counter-proposal. Acceptances recorded across the 83 years: zero.
Exhibit · The Scorecard, 1937–2020
Eight Offers. Zero Acceptances.
Audit document · pinned for inspection
Eight times in nine decades, an offer of statehood, territory, or peace has been put on the table by Britain, the United Nations, or a Government of Israel. Eight times the answer has been no. On six of the eight occasions, no counter-proposal was tendered at all. The two exceptions expired untaken: an illustrative map at Taba that lapsed with the talks, and a floated swap in 2008 that left Olmert's final map permanently unanswered. "I rejected it out of hand," its recipient later confirmed.
| Year | Proposal | What was offered | Response | Counter-proposal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Peel Commission Partition | An Arab state on roughly three-quarters of Mandate Palestine, unified with Transjordan2 | Jewish leadership accepted, reluctantly; Arab leadership refused. The Arab Revolt continued | None recorded |
| 1947 | UN Resolution 181 | Two states: an Arab state on approximately 45% of the territory; a Jewish state, largely Negev desert, on the remainder; Jerusalem internationalised | Jewish leadership accepted; Arab leadership rejected. Five Arab armies invaded, and lost | None recorded |
| Sept 1967 | Land for peace (the Israeli cabinet decision of June 1967) | Return of Sinai and the Golan in exchange for peace, conveyed via Washington | The Arab League, from Khartoum: no peace, no recognition, no negotiations | None recorded |
| 2000 | Camp David (Barak / Clinton) | A Palestinian state on approximately 91% of the West Bank at the summit, 94–96% with swaps under the Clinton Parameters of December 2000, all of Gaza, East Jerusalem as capital, and shared arrangements at the Temple Mount | Refused by Arafat, who offered no alternative. The Second Intifada followed3 | None recorded |
| 2001 | Taba (Barak) | Terms improving on Camp David; the delegations reported themselves never closer to agreement | Talks adjourned days before the Israeli election; the offer lapsed, unaccepted4 | An illustrative map; lapsed with the talks |
| 2005 | The Gaza Disengagement (Sharon) | Complete unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza: twenty-one settlements dismantled, eight thousand residents removed, the donated greenhouses left standing for Palestinian use5 | The greenhouses were looted within hours; Hamas was elected within six months; the rockets followed | None recorded |
| 2008 | The Olmert Plan | A Palestinian state on approximately 94% of the West Bank with land swaps approaching full equivalence, all of Gaza, a shared Jerusalem, and international administration of the Old City holy sites | Abbas did not respond. He later said of the map, "I rejected it out of hand" | A swap floated; the final map unanswered |
| 2020 | "Peace to Prosperity" (the Trump plan) | A Palestinian state on the bulk of the West Bank and Gaza, with land swaps, a capital in parts of East Jerusalem, and a fifty-billion-dollar economic package | Refused by Mahmoud Abbas in advance of publication. The PA styled its reply "a thousand no's" | None recorded |
Not Accepted
The eight rows span the British Empire, the United Nations, four American administrations, and Israeli premiers of Labour, Kadima, and Likud. No row ends in yes. The verdicts are set in italics, in conformity with the house style for recurring findings.
The negotiating partner that declines every offer extended and advances none of its own is a phenomenon for which the diplomatic literature has no settled name.