Borders of Israel - Borders With Palestinian Territories

Borders With Palestinian Territories

On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union as Resolution 181 (II). The Plan contained a proposal to terminate the British Mandate for Palestine and partition Palestine into Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. The Jewish community of Mandate Palestine accepted the plan, despite its misgivings. The Arab community as well as the Arab League countries all rejected the plan, and threatened to take military measures against any partition of the territory. On 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the Mandate for Palestine, David Ben-Gurion, on behalf of the Jewish community, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.

On the next day, the Arab armies marched their forces into what had been the British Mandate for Palestine. This intervention/invasion from all sides turned the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine into the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. When the tide of battle turned against the Arab forces, they agreed to a ceasefire in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Israel's expanded territorial holdings, with some minor adjustments, were made into boundaries, commonly referred to as the Green Line. The Green Line was expressly declared in the Armistice Agreements as a temporary demarcation line, rather than a permanent border, and the Armistice Agreements relegated the issue of permanent borders to future negotiations. The area to the west of the Jordan River came to be called the West Bank, and was annexed by Jordan in 1950; and the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt. Then, when Israel conquered the territories during the Six-Day War, it did not annex them, instead placing them under military occupation.

Israel and the Palestinian territories now lay entirely within the boundaries of former British Mandate Palestine. By the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Egypt renounced all claims to the Gaza Strip; as did Jordan in the Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace of 1994 to the West Bank. Syria still claims a tiny area in the Jordan Valley.

The Green Line is today Israel's official boundary with the Palestinian territories, with the exception of East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and formally annexed in 1980 with the Jerusalem Law, extending its eastern city limits. Israel subsequently built Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. The Israeli government offered the Palestinian residents citizenship, most of whom refused, and are today permanent residents under Israeli law. Many refused, not wanting to recognise Israeli sovereignty. ...But, according to the Israeli rights organisation Hamoked, if these Palestinians live abroad for seven years, or gain citizenship or residency elsewhere, they lose their Israeli residency.

The annexation of East Jerusalem was largely unrecognized by the international community; no country has its embassy there. Instead, the embassies are located in Tel Aviv, whilst Jerusalem remains home to many consulates.

The boundaries of a future Palestinian State, vis-a-vis Israel, are subject to ongoing negotiations in the Israel–Palestinian peace process. Israel's West Bank Wall, which encompasses almost all Israeli settlements, including all three major cities, and only a minor Palestinian population, was declared by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as running roughly along the future borders of Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman proposed that the Arab-Israeli border region known as the Triangle be removed from Israeli sovereignty and transferred to the Palestinian Authority, in exchange for the border settlement blocs. The Palestinian Authority claims all of these territories (including East Jerusalem) for a future Palestinian State, and its position is supported by the Arab League in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative which calls for the return by Israel to "the 1967 borders". While Israel has expressed desire to annex the border settlement blocs and keep East Jerusalem, its border with Gaza has largely been solidified, especially following Israel's withdrawal in 2005. Israel has not made claims to any portion Gazan territory, and offered the entire area to Palestinians as part of the 2000 Camp David Summit.

At the same time, Israel has continued to claim a nominal strip on the border between the West Bank and Jordan, and between Gaza and Egypt as its border with those countries. This is viewed as a legalistic device to enable Israel to control the entry of people and materials into the Palestinian territories.