Palestine Papers: The "Napkin Map" of Proposed Land for Peace Deal Illustrated
Previously secret diplomatic documents published Sunday by Al Jazeera and The Guardian regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reveal that negotiations promoted the “land for peace” principle to unprecedented degrees, with the Palestinian side offering the annexation of heavily criticized Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem.
The exact boundaries of the land swaps have heretofore been unknown, but now Al Jazeera has published the proposal made by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
As Al Jazeera journalist Gregg Carlstrom explains,
Olmert met in mid-2008 with Mahmoud Abbas and showed him a map of the proposed swaps. Abbas was not allowed to keep a copy of the map, and so the 73-year-old Palestinian president had to sketch a copy by hand on a napkin.
The full map is now available, and can be viewed below or downloaded here.
