1949 Armistice Agreements

The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Cease-fire line vs. permanent border

The agreements left about 78% of 1948 mandatory Palestine in Israeli hands. The rest of the area (the Gaza Strip and West Bank) was occupied by Egypt and Jordan respectively until 1967. See the related articles Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt and Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan.

Related Topics:
Mandatory Palestine - Gaza Strip - West Bank - Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt - Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan

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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.

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Excepting the agreement with Lebanon, the armistice agreements were clear (at Arab insistence) that they were not creating permanent or de jure borders. The Egyptian-Israeli agreement 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." http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/arm01.htm

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The Jordanian-Israeli agreement stated: "... no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims, and positions of either Party hereto in the peaceful settlement of the Palestine questions, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations" (Art. II.2), "The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto." (Art. VI.9) http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/arm03.htm

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In the Knesset then Foreign Minister and future Prime Minister Moshe Sharett called the armistice lines "provisional boundaries" and the old international borders which the armistice lines, except with Jordan, were based on, "natural boundaries". http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%20Relations/Israels%20Foreign%20Relations%20since%201947/1947-1974/2%20Israel-s%20position%20on%20its%20frontiers. Israel did not lay claim to territory beyond them and proposed them, with minor modifications except at Gaza, as the basis of permanent political frontiers at the Lausanne Conference, 1949.http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%20Relations/Israels%20Foreign%20Relations%20since%201947/1947-1974/3%20Attitude%20of%20the%20parties%20on%20the%20territorial%20issue

Related Topics:
Knesset - Moshe Sharett - Lausanne Conference, 1949

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After the 1967 Six Day War Israeli leaders warned against turning the armistice lines into permanent borders on the grounds of Israeli security:

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• 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."