ISRAEL'S BORDERS

-- Scroll Down For Menu Or Search -- Palestine Facts Home Page Geography and Population Basics Early History of Palestine Through World War I and British Mandate The British Mandate Period Independence of Israel (1947-1949) Israel 1948 Through 1967 Israel 1967 Through 1991 Israel 1991 Through Present Current Events Frequently Asked Questions about Palestine Frequently Asked Questions about this website Search Palestine Facts

What determined Israel's borders after the 1948 War of Independence?

At the conclusion of the War of Independence, in 1949, all of the Arab countries who invaded Israel signed cease fire agreements with Israel, starting with Egypt on February 24 and concluding with Syria on July 20. These agreements specified the interim borders between Israel and the Arab states, as decided by the outcome of the battles.

The territorial result was: The border with Egypt was restored to its previous line, with the exception of the Gaza Strip where Egypt continued in control. The border with Lebanon was restored to its previous line. The border with Syria was restored to its previous line. Jordan retained control of the hill country historically known as Judea and Samaria. This territory was renamed the "West Bank". Jordan controlled the Old City of Jerusalem. The "1949 Armistice Line" has become known as the "Green Line". * Map courtesy of Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In the negotiations with Jordan over Jerusalem, the Israeli representives were very concerned with Jewish access to the Old City. The Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement, signed on April 3, 1949, called for the establishment of a Special Committee to plan for "free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives." Expectations that Jews might visit the Western Wall for Passover 1949 were dashed when the Jordanians violated the Armistice Agreement. These clauses were never honored and Jews did not again have access to the Western Wall and other Jerusalem sites until 1967. The United Nations was of no assistance in this issue, and ignored the discrimination and violations of the Armistice Agreement. Although UN debates on the internationalization of Jerusalem continued despite the de facto Jordanian usurpation, there was no further mention of the inaccessibility of Jewish holy sites. The Vatican also ignored requests to intervene in order to allow Jews to visit their religious sites.

The Armistice Agreements brought the fighting of the War of Independence to an end, but did not actually end the war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The Arab states didn't recognize Israel and considered the armistice as only a pause. The Arab regimes considered the existence of Israel in their midst to be unacceptable and they continued to work toward Israel's destruction. They created and sustained a total boycott of Israel in all spheres of political and economic activity. They continued to support armed aggression against Israel, although not again by formal armies until the Six Day War in 1967.

In the Armistice Agreements, the ceasefire lines are defined as follows:

• 5(2). In no sense are the cease-fire lines to be interpreted as political or territorial borders and their delineation in no way affects the rights, demands or positions of any of the parties to the cease-fire agreements regarding the final disposition of the Palestine question.
• 5(3). The fundamental objective of the cease-fire lines is to serve as a line beyond which the armed forces of each of the parties will deploy.

Thus Israel has no "safe and recognized" borders under these agreements, and the cease-fire lines, as the above agreements signed in Rhodes in 1949 make clear, are unacceptable to the Arab countries. The November 1947 borders specified in the UN partition plan could have been the borders, but those borders were rejected by the Arabs at the time, and were not acceptable to Israel later since they proved indefensible against armies and porous to terrorists. Until the Israel-Egypt Peace Agreement of 1979 there was no change in the formal situation as of the 1949 Armistice.

Sources and additional reading on this topic:

• The State of Israel in Conflict
• Setting the Record Straight
• The Israeli Death Wish
• War of Independence, 1948-1949