Who Really Denied Statehood to the Palestinian People?

One of the most pervasive myths of the Palestinian protest movement is that Israel has denied statehood to the Palestinian people. To the contrary, Israel agreed to Palestinian statehood in 1937-1938, 1947-1948, 1967, 2000-2001, and 2007. In each case, it was the Palestinian leadership that refused to agree to the two-state solution that would have created a Palestinian state, alongside a state for Jewish inhabitants.

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In 1937 – in the midst of the terrorist revolt inspired by Adolf Hitler's ally, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – the British published the Palestine Royal Commission Report (also known as the Peel Commission Report).

The Commission recommended a partition plan by which to resolve what it characterized as "irrepressible conflict... between two national communities within the narrow bounds of one small country." Because of the general hostility and hatred of the Jews by the Muslims, "national assimilation between Arabs and Jews is... ruled out." Nor could the Jews be expected to accept Muslim rule over them, especially since Husseini made it clear that most of the Jews would be transferred out of Palestine if the Muslims gained complete control. The Peel Commission concluded that partition was the only solution.

The Peel Commission plan proposed a Jewish state in areas in which there was a clear Jewish majority. Divided into two non-contiguous sections, the northern portion extended from Tel Aviv to the current border with Lebanon. It consisted largely of a 10-mile-wide strip of land from the Mediterranean east to the end of the coastal plain, then a somewhat wide area from Haifa to the Sea of Galilee. A southern portion, disconnected from the northern one by a British controlled area that included Jerusalem, with its majority Jewish population, extended from South Jaffa to north of Gaza.

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