Green Line

The **Green Line** (Arabic: الخط الأخضر *al-khuṭṭ al-akhḍar*, Hebrew: גרינע ליניע) is the colloquial name used to describe the 1949 Armistice Agreement lines, which separated territory under the control of the Israel Defense Forces from that of the All-Palestine Army following the signing of the armistice which ended the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and which to this day form the border between Israel and Palestine.

Both Israel and Palestine continue to claim territory on either side of the line; in this respect, the two states view the Green Line boundaries as temporary, ultimately to be replaced by a future unilateral occupation or bilateral compromise. The Palestinian government claims all Israeli-controlled territory apart from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, while the Israeli government only claims the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, having given up its claims to the Sinai and Gaza as part of the negotiations which ultimately ended the 1976–1979 Sinai War, upon which Israel and Palestine returned to the 1949 boundaries.

## Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

Both sections of the Green Line actually consist of two parallel lines, between which lays a demilitarised no-man’s land. For most of the border, the space between the two lines is no wider than 30 m, and is in fact no wider than a boulevard where the Green Line separates East from West Jerusalem. However, the space widens significantly to encompass the entire Old City of Jerusalem, as well as the Jewish cemeteries just east of the Temple Mount at the western base of the Mount of Olives, the summit of which is part of the East Jerusalem borough of El-Tor. The entire length Green Line is officially considered a demilitarised zone (DMZ), off-limits to partisan military forces.

Naturally, the space separating both sides of the Green Line in Jerusalem and including the widened area encompassing the Old City of Jerusalem is a DMZ controlled by the UN peacekeeping brigade Multinational Force and Observers (MFO): the Old City receives electricity and water from the East Jerusalem municipality, which counts it as one of its boroughs, but is in fact off limits to Israeli and Palestinian military and security forces, with MFO forces responsible for public security within and controlling access to the Old City, while the gates back out are controlled by the border services of the respective national side of entry. The MFO are mostly concentrated around Jerusalem as well as their headquarters near El-Joureh in the Sinai Desert, but are technically charged with monitoring the entire length of the Green Line.

The reason for the DMZ is that both Israel and Palestine *de jure* claim both sides of the Green Line as their own sovereign territory. Thus, the terms of the 1949 armistice, confirmed by the 1979 armistice, stipulate the withdrawal of Palestinian forces to one side of the Green Line and Israeli forces to the other, and both states' respect for the demilitarised nature of the line and its inviolability. Since 1979, no formal peace treaty has been signed between Palestine and Israel, leaving the Green Line and the pair of armistice agreements legitimising it the only tangible legal boundary between the two states and delimitation of their internal interests.