1949 Armistice Agreements Details, Meaning 1949 Armistice Agreements Article and Explanation Guide

1949 Armistice Agreements Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The agreements ended the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and outlined Israel's de-facto borders, also known as the Green Line, until the 1967 Six-Day War.

Table of contents

1 Agreements

1.1 With Egypt
1.2 With Lebanon
1.3 With Jordan
1.4 With Syria
1.5 Others

2 Cease-fire line vs. permanent border
3 Violations
4 Related articles
5 Texts

Agreements

With Egypt

The agreement with Egypt was signed on February 24. The main points were:

The armistice line was drawn along the international border (dating back to 1906) for the most part, except near the Mediterranean Sea, where Egypt remained in control of a strip of land along the coast, which became known as the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian forces besieged in the Faluja Pocket were allowed to return to Egypt with their weapons, and the area was handed over to Israel.
A zone on both sides of the border around 'Uja al-Hafeer (Nitzana) was to be demilitarized, and became the seat of the bilateral armistice committee.

With Lebanon

The agreement with Lebanon was signed on March 23. The main points were:

The armistice line ('the Blue line') was drawn along the international border.
Israel withdrew its forces from 13 villages in Lebanese territory, which were occupied during the war.

With Jordan

The agreement with Jordan was signed on April 3. The main points:

Jordanian forces remained in most positions held by them in the West Bank, including the Arab East Jerusalem, and the Old City.
Jordan withdrew its forces from their front posts overlooking the Plain of Sharon. In return, Israel agreed to allow Jordanian forces to take over positions in the West Bank previously held by Iraqi forces.
A Special Committee was to be formed to make arrangements for safe movement of traffic between Jerusalem and Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University, along the Latrun-Jerusalem Highway, free access to the Holy Places, and other matters.

With Syria

The agreement with Syria was signed on July 20. Syria withdrew its forces from most of the territories it had control of west of the international border. Those areas were then to be demilitarized.

Others

Iraq, whose forces took an active part in the war (although it has no common border with Israel), withdrew its forces from the region in March 1949. The front occupied by Iraqi forces was covered by the armistice agreement between Israel and Jordan and there was no separate agreement with Iraq.

Cease-fire line vs. permanent border

The agreements left about 70% of mandatory Palestine (another often used number is 17.5% of the original Mandate territory which also included Jordan) in Israeli hands. The rest of the area (the Gaza Strip and West Bank) stayed occupied by Egypt and Jordan respectively, until 1967. See:

The armistice agreements were intended to serve only as interim agreements, until they would be replaced by permanent peace treaties. However, no peace treaties were actually signed until decades later.

In the following years, Israeli leaders consistently warned against turning the cease-fire line into the permanent border on the grounds of Israel's security:

Prime Minister Golda Meir noted the pre-1967 borders were so dangerous that it "would be treasonable" for an Israeli leader to accept them (New York Times, December 23, 1969).
The Foreign Minister Abba Eban said the pre-1967 borders have "a memory of Auschwitz" (Der Spiegel, November 5, 1969).
Prime Minister Menachem Begin described a proposal for a retreat to the pre-1967 borders as "national suicide for Israel."