Green Line (Israel)

Israel's 1949 Green Line (dark green) and demilitarized zones (light green)

Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between the armies of Israel and those of its neighbors (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The name derives from the green ink used to draw the line on the map while the armistice talks were going on.^[1] From Israel's perspective, the territories "beyond" the Green Line came to be designated as East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula. The Green Line became especially significant in Israel after Israel captured these territories in the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israeli maps contained the Green Line. These territories have since 1967 often been referred to as Israeli occupied territories. (The Sinai Peninsula has since been returned to Egypt as part of the 1979 peace treaty.)

The Green Line is not and was not intended to be a border. The 1949 Armistice Agreements were clear (at Arab insistence^[2]) that they were not creating permanent borders. The Egyptian-Israeli agreement, for example, stated "The Armistice Demarcation Line is not to be construed in any sense as a political or territorial boundary, and is delineated without prejudice to rights, claims and positions of either Party to the Armistice as regards ultimate settlement of the Palestine question."^[3] Similar provisions are contained in the Armistice Agreements with Jordan and Syria. The Agreement with Lebanon stipulated that forces shall be withdrawn to the Israel-Lebanon international border.

The Green Line is often referred to as the "pre-1967 borders", the "1967 borders" by many international bodies and national leaders, including the United States president, currently Barack Obama,^[4] Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas,^[5] and by the United Nations in informal texts^[6] and in the text of UN GA Resolutions.^[7]

History

A border sign in Jerusalem, 1951; in the background: Tower of David

Initially, the Green Line was an Israeli term which referred to the demarcation lines, rather than permanent borders, between Israeli forces and those of its hostile neighbours.^[2] All movement across the demarcation lines was banned and monitored by the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). Most commonly, the term was applied to the boundary between Jordan-controlled Jerusalem and the West Bank and Israel. The drawing of the Green Line superseded entirely the partition lines proposed and voted on by the United Nations in the Partition Plan of 1947 and which Israel had accepted in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The Palestinian and Arab leaders had repeatedly rejected any permanent partition of Mandate Palestine.

In 1967, after Israel seized all the territories of the former Mandate Palestine, as well as other territories, the demarcation lines became militarily irrelevant, and the status of the Green Line became uncertain. In 1970, Stephen M. Schwebel, while a deputy legal advisor to the U.S. Department of State (1961–1981), wrote in the American Journal of International Law that "...modifications of the 1949 armistice lines among those States within former Palestinian territory are lawful (if not necessarily desirable), whether those modifications are...'insubstantial alterations required for mutual security' or more substantial alterations—such as recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem." In a footnote, he wrote: "It should be added that the armistice agreements of 1949 expressly preserved the territorial claims of all parties and did not purport to establish definitive boundaries between them."^[8][9]

Although Israel has always formally argued that the Green Line has no legal significance, the Green Line continued to have political, legal and administrative significance, as the territories beyond the Green Line, unlike those within the Green Line, were regarded in Israel as occupied territories, and not incorporated into Israeli political and civilian administrative systems. The territories beyond the Green Line were administered by the Israeli military or later also by the Palestinian Authority.^[10][11] Citizenship by residence, for example, was determined with reference to the Green Line, as well as a person's refugee status.

The extension of the municipality boundary of Jerusalem in 1980 was an exception to this position. Although Jerusalem was a part of territory beyond the Green Line that was occupied by Jordan until 1967, Israel declared Jerusalem "complete and united" as the capital of Israel according to the 1980 Basic Jerusalem Law,^[12][13] an action which has not been recognised by any country or by the UN Security Council.^[12][13] A notional Green Line continues to divide Jerusalem at the boundary of East Jerusalem.

The Golan Heights are another exception, having been informally incorporated with the 1981 Golan Heights Law, which the UN Security Council announced as null and without any international legal effect^[14] Israeli settlements are also essentially subject to the laws of Israel rather than the Palestinian Authority's laws.

Impact

The sections of the Green Line that delineate the boundaries between Israel, the West Bank and Gaza run through heavily populated regions. The Line corresponds to the military front of the 1948 War, and while the considerations dictating its placement were primarily military, it soon became clear that in many places it divided towns and villages, and separated farmers from their fields. Consequently, the Green Line underwent various slight adjustments, and special arrangements were made for limited movement in certain areas.^[15]

Jerusalem was divided in half, into East and West Jerusalem. The village of Barta'a, partially due to errors on the map, was left with one third of its area on the Israeli side and two thirds outside of it. Kibbutz Ramat Rachel was left almost entirely outside the Israeli side of the Green Line.^[15]

According to Avi Shlaim, in March 1949 as the Iraqi forces withdrew and handed over their positions to the Jordanian legion, Israel carried out Operation Shin-Tav-Shin which allowed Israel to renegotiate the cease fire line in the Wadi Ara area of the northern West Bank in a secret agreement that was incorporated into the General Armistice Agreement. The green line was redrawn in blue ink on the southern map to give the impression that a movement into green line had been made.^[16]

Jewish population

Barbed wire separating East and West Jerusalem at Mandelbaum Gate.

During the war, Jews residing east of the Line, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, were taken prisoner by the Jordanians. All but a few of the Gush Etzion defenders were massacred. The prisoners were returned to Israel after the war.^[10] On July 8, 1948, the Jewish inhabitants of Kfar Darom and Naharayim were evacuated by Israel due to military pressure by Egypt and Jordan. Israel also withdrew from villages in the Lebanese Upper Galilee, whereas Syria withdrew from Mishmar HaYarden.

Since Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, Israeli settlements have been established south and east of the Line. From August to September 2005, Israel implemented a unilateral disengagement plan in which the entire Jewish population of the Gaza Strip was evacuated. In 2006, Ehud Olmert proposed a convergence plan that called for Israel to disengage, unilaterally, if necessary, from much of the West Bank (east of the line).

Arab population

The majority of Palestinian Arabs on the Israeli side of the Line fled or were expelled during the war (around 720,000). Those who remained became Israeli citizens and now comprise approximately 20% of Israel's total citizenry. The Umm al-Fahm-Baqa al-Gharbiyye-Tira area, known as the "Triangle", was originally designated to fall under Jordanian jurisdiction, but Israel demanded its inclusion on the Israeli side due to military and strategic considerations. To achieve this, a territorial swap was negotiated with Transjordan, giving the latter Israeli territory in the southern hills of Hebron in exchange for the Triangle villages in Wadi Ara.^[10] In the Six-Day War, Israel occupied territories beyond the Green Line inhabited by over a million Palestinian Arabs, including refugees from the 1947–1949 war.^[17] The Green Line remained the administrative border between these territories (with the exception of Jerusalem) and the areas inside the Israeli side of the Green Line.

In 1967, East Jerusalem was annexed into Israel, with its Arab inhabitants given permanent residency status. They were also entitled to apply for Israeli citizenship. Domestically, the status of East Jerusalem as part of Israel was further entrenched with the 1980 Jerusalem Law. United Nations Security Council Resolution 478, determined the law null and void. In 1981, the rule of law of Israel was extended to the Golan Heights with the Golan Heights Law in what can be seen as an informal annexation.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The question of whether, or to what extent, Israel should withdraw its population and forces to its side of the Green Line remains a crucial issue in some discussions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The near-unanimous international consensus has been displayed in the yearly UN General Assembly vote on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine.^[18] Although disputed by Israel, UN resolution 242^[19] has made clear the interpretation of international law regarding Palestinian Territory. The Palestinians were not party to the drawing of the Green Line and rejected UN resolution 242 on the basis that it did not specifically call for an independent Palestinian state, but rather spoke of them as refugees. Since 1976, most elements in the PLO have accepted the pre-June 1967 line as a basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state.^[20]

According to Noam Chomsky, claims that the Palestinian leadership reject the international consensus calling for a Palestinian state with borders along the Green Line are not consistent with the documented record.^[21] Smaller elements in the Palestinian leadership, even inside Hamas, have called for a two state settlement based on the pre-June 1967 borders (the Green Line).^[22][23] Although Hamas's official policy is committed to Israel's destruction, Ismail Haniya, the prime minister of the unity government until June 2007, has spoken of a long-term truce with Israel if Israel withdraws from territory occupied in 1967.^[24]

The Israeli West Bank barrier is, in parts, kilometres away from the Green Line, with most of it lying within Palestinian territory.^[25]

Social perceptions of the Green Line

According to Hebrew University Geographer Ilan Salomon, the Green Line can be discerned via satellite, marked by the Jewish National Fund pine forests planted to demarcate Israeli space. Salomon and Larissa Fleishman conducted a study regarding Israeli students' knowledge of the location of the Green Line and found that not much more than 1/3 could identify its placement; they furthermore found that "students who identify with left-leaning parties are more familiar with the location of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, can sketch them more accurately and are also more aware of the nature of borders."^[26]

See also

• At the Green Line
• Peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
• Blue Line
• Purple Line
• Mixed Armistice Commissions
• United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)

References

Further reading

• Gad Barzilai and Ilan Peleg, "Israel and Future Borders: Assessment of a Dynamic Process", Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 31, No. 1 (February 1994), pp. 59–73
• Bornstein, Avram S. Crossing the Green Line Between the West Bank and Israel, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001; Unfavourable review by Steven Plaut, Middle East Forum, Vol. 10, No. 3, (Spring 2003); Favourable review by Matthew S. Gordon, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 2003)
• S. Brian Willson, "History of Palestine and Green Line Israel", Most Dangerous of Rogue Nation, 1992, Revised May 2002
• David Newman, "Boundaries in Flux: The 'Green Line' Boundary between Israel and the West Bank - Past, Present and Future", Boundary & Territory Briefings, Vol. 1 no. 7, 1995.
• David Newman, "The functional presence of an 'erased' boundary: The re-emergence of the 'green line'"; from Schofield C.H. and Schofield R.N. (eds.). World Boundaries: the Middle East and North Africa, Routledge, London, 1995 (ISBN 0415088399)
• Nadim Rouhana, "The Intifada and the Palestinians of Israel: Resurrecting the Green Line", Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Spring 1990), pp. 58–75
• Amb. Alan Baker, The Fallacy of the "1967 Borders" - No Such Borders Ever Existed
• Amb. Dore Gold, 'Land Swaps' and the 1967 Lines
• Ana Barahona Bearing Witness - Eight weeks in Palestine Metete Publications

External links

• Foundation for Middle East Peace - Maps
• University of Texas- Middle East Maps - PCL