Borders of Israel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] The British Mandate

[edit] The Sykes-Picot Line

Zones of French and British influence and control proposed in the Sykes-Picot Agreement

The Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 divided the Middle East between British and French spheres of influence. "Palestine" was designated as an "international enclave".^[1] This agreement was revised by Britain and France in 1919. It was agreed that Palestine and the Vilayet of Mosul in modern-day Iraq would be part of the British sphere in exchange for British support of French influence in Syria and Lebanon.^[2] According to historian Ilan Pappe,

"The borders of mandatory Palestine, first drawn up in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, were given their definitive shape during lengthy and tedious negotiations by British and French officials between 1919 and 1922...In October 1919 the British envisaged the area that is today southern Lebanon and most of southern Syria as being part of British mandatory Palestine...In the East, matters were more complicated...[Transjordan] was part of the Ottoman province of Damascus which in the Sykes-Picot agreement had been allocated to the French."^[3]

At the San Remo Conference (19–26 April 1920) the Allied Supreme Council granted the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia to Britain without precisely defining the boundaries of the mandated territories.^[4][5] Although the land east of the Jordan had been part of the Syrian administrative unit under the Ottomans, it was excluded from the French Mandate at the San Remo conference, "on the grounds that it was part of Palestine."^[6]

[edit] Franco-British Boundary Agreement

The Franco-British Boundary Agreement of 1920 contained the principles for the boundary between the Mandates of Palestine and Mesopotamia, attributed to Great Britain, and the Mandate of Syria and the Lebanon, attributed to France.

The boundary between the forthcoming British and French mandates was defined in broad terms.^[7]. That agreement placed the bulk of the Golan Heights in the French sphere. The treaty also established a joint commission to settle the border and mark it on the ground.^[7] The commission submitted its final report on 3 February 1922, and it was approved with some caveats by the British and French governments on 7 March 1923, several months before Britain and France assumed their Mandatory responsibilities on 29 September 1923.^[8][9] In accordance with the same process, a nearby parcel of land that included the ancient site of Dan was transferred from Syria to Palestine early in 1924. In this way the Golan Heights became part of the French Mandate of Syria.

In 1923, after he had left office, American President Woodrow Wilson protested British concessions in a cable to the British Cabinet: "The Zionist cause depends on rational northern and eastern boundaries for a self-maintaining, economic development of the country. This means, on the north, Palestine must include the Litani River and the watersheds of the Hermon, and on the east it must include the plains of the Jaulon and the Hauran. Narrower than this is a mutilation… I need not remind you that neither in this country nor in Paris has there been any opposition to the Zionist program, and to its realization the boundaries I have named are indispensable". ^[10] When the French Mandate of Syria ended in 1944, the Golan Heights remained part of the newly independent state of Syria.

[edit] Transjordan

In March 1921 Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, visited Jerusalem. After a discussion with Emir Abdullah it was agreed that the Jewish National Home objective for the proposed Palestinian Mandate territory would not apply to the Mandate territory east of the Jordan River. In accordance with that agreement, the Churchill White Paper of June 3, 1922 stated explicitly that "the terms of the [Balfour] Declaration referred to do not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded 'in Palestine'."

In June 1922 the League of Nations approved the Palestine Mandate, to come into effect automatically when a dispute between France and Italy over the Syria Mandate was settled. The Mandate also stated that Britain could ‘postpone or withhold’ application of the provisions dealing with the 'Jewish National Home' in the territory east of the Jordan River, then called Transjordan. In September 1922, the British government presented a memorandum to the League of Nations stating that Transjordan would be excluded from all the provisions dealing with Jewish settlement, and this memorandum was approved on 23 September. The French/Italian dispute was resolved on September 29, 1923 and both Mandates came into force on that date.

Britain administered the part west of the Jordan as Palestine, and the part east of the Jordan as Transjordan, with the border being the Jordan River. Palestine comprised 23% of the Mandate territory and Transjordan comprised 77%. Technically they were one mandate but most official documents referred to them as two separate mandates. Transjordan remained under British control until 1946, when it gained independence.

[edit] Border with Lebanon

The Blue Line covers the Lebanese-Israeli border; an extension covers the Lebanese-Golan Heights border.

The United Nations in June 2000 was called upon to decide the border between Lebanon and Israel, in order to determine whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon in compliance with Security Council Resolution 425. This line came to be called the Blue Line. At the same time, the United Nations did not have to considered the legally demarcated international boundary between Lebanon and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, as that was not required for the purpose of Resolution 425. Accordingly, the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights is expressly not to be called the Blue Line.

The Blue Line which the UN had to determine was the line of deployment of the IDF prior to March 14, 1978, when Israel invaded Lebanon. In effect that line was recognised by both Lebanon and by Israel as the international border, and not just as the armistice line of 1949 (what is commonly called the Green Line) following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

[edit] Background

On March 14, 1978, Israel launched Operation Litani, occupying the area south of the Litani River, excepting Tyre (see map). In response to the invasion, the UN Security Council passed Council Resolution 425 and Resolution 426 calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. Israeli forces withdrew later in 1978, but turned over their positions inside Lebanon to their ally, the South Lebanon Army (SLA).

On 17 April 2000, Israel announced that it will withdraw its forces from Lebanon. The Lebanese government refused to take part in marking the border. The UN thus conducted its own survey based on the line for the purpose of UN Security Council Resolution 425 (1978).

From 24 May to 7 June 2000, the UN Special Envoy heard views in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The United Nations cartographer and his team, assisted by UNIFIL, worked on the ground to identify a line to be adopted for the practical purposes of confirming the Israeli withdrawal. While it was agreed that this would not be a formal border demarcation, the aim was to identify a line on the ground closely conforming to the internationally recognized boundaries of Lebanon, based on the best available cartographic and other documentary evidence.

On 25 May 2000, Israel notified the Secretary-General that it had redeployed its forces in compliance with Council Resolution 425, that is to the international border.

On 7 June the completed map showing the withdrawal line was formally transmitted by the Force Commander of UNIFIL to his Lebanese and Israeli counterparts. Notwithstanding their reservations about the line, the Governments of Israel and Lebanon confirmed that identifying this line was solely the responsibility of the United Nations and that they would respect the line as identified.

On 8 June, UNIFIL teams commenced the work of verifying the Israeli withdrawal behind the line.

[edit] The Blue Line

The Blue Line identified by the United Nations in 2000 as the border between Lebanon and Israel, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Hasbani River, closely approximates the Green Line set under the 1949 Armistice Agreement between Lebanon, and Israel. The area east of the Hasbani River, is considered part of Syria[1] and included in the Golan Heights.

The armistice agreement between Lebanon and Israel was signed on March 23, 1949. The main points were:

• The armistice line (i.e. "Green Line") was the international border, which corresponds to the 1923 Mandate border between the French Mandate of Lebanon and the British Mandate of Palestine (see: Treaty of Sèvres).
• Unlike the other Green Line agreements, it contains no clause disclaiming this line as an international border, and was thereafter treated as it had been previously, as a de jure international border.
• Israel withdrew its forces from 13 villages in Lebanese territory, which were occupied during the war.

In 1923 38 boundary markers were placed along the 49 mile boundary and a detailed text description was published.[2] The 2000 Blue Line differs in about a half dozen short stretches from the 1949 line, though never by more than 475 meters.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1950 and 1967, Israeli and Lebanese surveyors managed to complete 25 non-contiguous kilometers and mark (but not sign) another quarter of the international border.

[edit] Conclusion

On 16 June, the Secretary-General reported to the Security Council that Israel had withdrawn its forces from Lebanon in accordance with Council Resolution 425 and met the requirements defined in his report of 22 May 2000. [3]

The withdrawal line has been termed the Blue Line in all official UN communications since.

[edit] Border with Syria

In 1923 an agreement between the United Kingdom and France established the border between the British Mandate of Palestine and the French Mandate of Syria. The British handed over the southern Golan Heights to the French in return for the northern Jordan Valley. The border was re-drawn so that both sides of the Jordan River and the whole of the Sea of Galilee, including a 10-metre wide strip along the northeastern shore, were made a part of Palestine. ^[11] The 1947 UN Partition Plan put this territory area inside the Jewish state.

During the 1990s, there were constant negotiations between Israel and Syria regarding a mediation of conflicts and an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights but a peace treaty did not come to fruition. The main stumbling block seems to involve 25 square kilometers of territory in the Jordan River Valley that lays west of the international Israel-Syrian border, but which had been seized by Syria in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and retained by it under the 1949 Armistice Agreement with Israel. Arab countries support Syria's position in the formula which calls on Israel "to return to the 1967 borders". (See 2002 Arab Peace Initiative)

Sites on the Golan in blue are Jewish communities. Sites on the Golan in black are Druze and Circassian communities. Areas of the Golan controlled by Israel are light-coloured while those under Syrian control are grey. The Golan Heights are surrounded by four countries: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel.

[edit] Conflict Over The Shebaa Farms

It must be remembered that both Lebanon and Syria were within the French Mandate Territory between 1920 and the end of the French Mandate in 1946.

The dispute over the sovereignty of the Shebaa Farms resulted in part from the failure of French Mandate administrations, and subsequently from the failure of the Lebanon and Syria to properly demarcate the border between them.

Documents from the 1920s and 1930s indicate that some local inhabitants regarded themselves as part of Lebanon, for example paying taxes to the Lebanese government. But French officials at times expressed confusion as to the actual location of the border.^[12] One French official in 1939 expressed the belief that the uncertainty was sure to cause trouble in the future.

The region continued to be represented in the 1930s and 1940s as Syrian territory, under the French Mandate. Detailed maps showing the border were produced by the French in 1933, and again in 1945.^[13] They clearly showed the region to be in Syria.

After the French Mandate ended in 1946, the land was administered by Syria, and represented as such in all maps of the time.^[14]

The maps of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Syria and Israel also designated the area as Syrian.

Border disputes arose at times, however. Shebaa Farms was not unique; several other border villages had similar discrepancies of borders versus land ownership. Syria and Lebanon formed a joint Syrian-Lebanese border committee in the late 1950s to determine a proper border between the two nations. In 1964, concluding its work, the committee suggested to the two governments that the area be deemed the property of Lebanon, and recommended that the international border be reestablished consistent with its suggestion. However, neither Syria nor Lebanon adopted the committee's suggestion, and neither country took any action along the suggested lines. Thus, maps of the area continued to reflect the Farms as being in Syria.^[14] Even maps of both the Syrian and Lebanese armies continued to demarcate the region within Syrian territory (see map).^[14]

A Lebanese military map, published in 1966, showing the Shebaa Farms as being on the Syrian side of the border.

A number of local residents regarded themselves as Lebanese, however. The Lebanese government showed little interest in their views. The Syrian government administered the region, and on the eve of the 1967 war, the region was under effective Syrian control.

In 1967 most Shebaa Farms landowners and (Lebanese) farmers lived outside the Syrian-controlled region, across the Lebanon-Syrian border, in the Lebanese village of Shebaa. During the Six Day War in 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria, including the Shebaa Farms area. As a consequence, the Lebanese landowners were no longer able to farm it.^[15]

In 1981, the Golan Heights (including the Shebaa Farms area) was officially annexed by Israel.^[16] This unilateral annexation was not internationally recognized and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 considers the area part of Israeli occupied territories.

[edit] Border with Jordan

The Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace was implemented on October 26, 1994. Besides mediating tensions between the two sides, the treaty also resolved territorial and border issues that were ongoing since the 1948 war. The boundary was given new limits and further restrictions with reference to the boundary definition under the Mandate. The effects of the treaty then stemmed to other issues. The treaty further specified and fully recognized the international border between Israel and Jordan.

Upon the official signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace, the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers, the Dead Sea, the Emek Ha'arva/Wadi Araba and the Gulf of Aqaba were officially designated as the borders between Israel and Jordan. (See: Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty, Annex I, Israel-Jordan International Boundary Delimitation and Demarcation.^[17]) Shortly after the beginning of the First Intifada, Jordan withdrew any claim to the West Bank.

[edit] Border with Egypt

The 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and Egypt was ratified on 24 February 1949. The newly signed agreement called for the armistice line between these countries was to be at the original international border (dating back to 1906) except near the Mediterranean Sea, where Egypt would remain in control of the Gaza Strip.

The Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, signed on 26 March 1979, required the withdrawal of Israeli forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula. Israel captured this territory during the 1967 Six-Day War. Just as it was in the first Armistice Agreement, the withdrawal was to the international border except this time the line included the Gaza Strip as a new part to Egypt's border. Egypt withdrew any claim to the Gaza Strip, leaving the land to be contested by both Israelis and Palestinians.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

1. Franco-British Convention on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia, signed Dec. 23, 1920. Text available in American Journal of International Law, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1922, 122-126.
2. Agreement between His Majesty's Government and the French Government respecting the Boundary Line between Syria and Palestine from the Mediterranean to El Hámmé, Treaty Series No. 13 (1923), Cmd. 1910.
3. Gideon Biger (1989), Geographical and other arguments in delimitation in the boundaries of British Palestine, in "International Boundaries and Boundary Conflict Resolution", IBRU Conference, ISBN 1855600005, 41-61.
4. John McTague (1982), Anglo-French Negotiations over the Boundaries of Palestine, 1919-1920, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2, 101-112.
5. Yitzhak Gil-Har (1993), British commitments to the Arabs and their application to the Palestine-Trans-Jordan boundary: The issue of the Semakh triangle, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.29, No.4, 690-701.
6. Muhsin Yusuf (1991), The Zionists and the process of defining the borders of Palestine, 1915-1923, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, 18-39.
7. Gideon Biger (1995), The encyclopedia of international boundaries, New York : Facts on File.
8. Gideon Biger (2005), The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840-1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714656542.
9. US Department of State, International Boundary Study series: Iraq-Jordan, Iraq-Syria, Jordan-Syria, Israel-Lebanon.