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 Israel and its neighbours (Egypt Jordan Lebanon and Syria) after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Green Line is also used to mark the line between Israel and the territories captured in the Six-Day War including the West Bank Gaza Strip Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula (the latter has since been returned to Egypt). The name derives from the green ink used to draw the line on the map while the talks were going on.12 Contents 1 Overview 2 Impact 2.1 Jewish population 2.2 Arab population 3 Israeli-Palestinian conflict 4 Social perceptions of the Green Line 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links Overview

The Green Line is not an international or permanent border. Judge Stephen M. Schwebel at the time a deputy legal advisor to the U.S. Department of State Legal Adviser Office (19611981) wrote in the American Journal of International Law (1970) 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."3

While the line is a temporary border in practice it is used to differentiate between those areas which are administered as part of the State of Israel and the areas outside it which are administered by the Israeli military or the Palestinian National Authority.45 The extended municipality of Jerusalem constitutes one exception to this: although the parts ruled by Jordan until 1967 fall outside the Green Line Israel has informally annexed them according to the Basic Jerusalem Law (1980). Other nations' positions on Jerusalem vary.

The Golan Heights are another exception having been informally annexed with the Golan Heights Law (1981). Israeli settlements are also essentially subject to the laws of the State of Israel rather than the PNA's laws. As of December 2005 the Line formally divided the areas of operation of the Israeli Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent Society although the former is still responsible for care in Israeli settlements.6 Impact A border sign in Jerusalem 1951; in the background: Tower of David

The sections of the Line that delineate the boundaries between Israel the West Bank and Gaza runs 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.7

Jerusalem was divided in half into East and West Jerusalem and the village of Barta'a which 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.7

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.8 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.4 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). This plan was disrupted by the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Arab population The majority of Arabs on the Israeli side of the Line fled or were expelled during the war. 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.4 In the Six-Day War Israel occupied territories beyond the Green Line inhabited by over a million Palestinian Arabs including refugees from the 19471949 war.9 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 Jerusalem Law of 1980. United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 determined the law null and void. In 1981 the rule of law of the State 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.10 Although disputed by Israel UN resolution 242 11 have 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. From 1976 most elements in the PLO accepted the pre-June 1967 borders as a basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state.12 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.13 Smaller elements in the Palestinian leadership such as Hamas have called for a two state settlement on the pre-June 1967 borders (the Green Line).1415 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."16 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 Green Line: the name given to the 1949 Armistice lines that constituted the de facto borders of pre-1967 Israel "Glossary: Israel" Library of Congress Country Studies Eli E. Hertz "A Secure Israel - Security: A Condition for Peace" Myths and Facts December 9 2006 Gilo settlements and the Green Line in perspective a b c Yisrael Ya'akov Yuval "Where is the Green Line" Two Thousand Vol. 29 no. 971 2005 (Hebrew) Akiva Eldar "What is the Green Line" Haaretz July 21 2006 (Hebrew) "Geneva vote paves the way for MDA Red Cross membership" Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs December 8 2005 a b Yossi Alpher et al. "The green line" Palestinian-Israeli crossfire Edition 8 February 24 2003 The Politics of Partition; King Abdullah The Zionists and Palestine 19211951 Avi Shlaim Oxford University Press Revised Edition 2004 ISBN 019829459-x pp. 299 312 The new territories more than doubled the size of pre1967 Israel placing under Israel's control more than 1 million Palestinian Arabs ... In November 1967 ... UN Security Council Resolution 242 called for "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" in exchange for Arab acceptance of Israel "Israel: 1967 and Afterward" Library of Congress Country Studies Fouad Moughrabi. The International Consensus on the Palestine Question Journal of Palestine Studies 1987 Eric Black. Resolution 242 and the Aftermath of 1967 PBS/Minneapolis Star Tribune 1992 Draft Resolution 'The Middle East problem' Security Council document S/11940 23 January 1976 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Retrieved September 22 2010 Noam Chomsky The Fateful Triangle: The United States Israel and the Palestinians South End Press 1983/1999 ISBN 0-8960-8601-1 chapter 3 pp. 95-173 Amira Hass. Haniyeh: Hamas willing to accept Palestinian state with 1967 borders Haaretz November 9 2008 Hamas ready to accept 1967 borders Al Jazeera April 22 2008 Akiva Eldar. "Putting back the Green Line - once we find it" Haaretz December 8 2006 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. 5973 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. 5875 Amb. Alan Baker The Fallacy of the "1967 Borders" - No Such Borders Ever Existed External links Foundation for Middle East Peace - Maps University of Texas- Middle East Maps - PCL Walk The Green Line A fundraising event of IPCRI Coordinates: 312526N 345333E / 31.42398N 34.89258E / 31.42398; 34.89258