United Nations-sponsored armistice agreements signed in 1949 between the State of Israel and four Arab States. In the largest case of its kind, the Hashemite Jordan Empire complained on June 28, 1949, about the expulsion of about 1500 Arab civilians from the Baqa el Gharbyia area of central Palestine, which had been transferred to Israeli control. After the investigation of the situation by 2 subcommittees, the Joint Ceasefire Commission decided by a majority that Israel had violated the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement by pushing civilians across the demarcation line into the territory of the Hashemite Jordan Empire. Nevertheless, the question remains how many displaced civilians should be allowed to return permanently to their villages. A bipartisan committee is currently working to find an amicable solution to this problem by mutual agreement. Similar problems in other parts of Palestine, such as Wadi Fukin south of Bethlehem, were resolved by the Joint Armistice Commission by agreeing to readjustments to the demarcation lines. The general principles set out in these four ceasefire agreements are the same. In each of them, both parties undertake to abide by the Security Council order against the use of military force in the settlement of the Palestinian question; in each party undertake to refrain from aggressive acts and to respect the right of the other party to its security and protection against fear of attack; in each of the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreements, the parties have also recognized that these agreements are indispensable steps towards the settlement of the armed conflict and the restoration of peace in Palestine; Furthermore, in each ceasefire agreement, the respective parties recognize that nothing in the agreement will in any way affect the rights, demands and positions of the other party in a peaceful and final solution to the Palestinian question. The Green Line was designed more as a demarcation line than as a permanent border. The armistice agreements of 1949 were clear (at Arab insistence)[3] that they did not create permanent borders. The Israeli-Egyptian agreement, for example, stipulates that “the ceasefire demarcation line shall in no way be construed as a political or territorial border and shall be demarcated without prejudice to the rights, claims and positions of any of the parties to the ceasefire with regard to the final settlement of the Palestinian question.” [4] Similar provisions are contained in the ceasefire agreements with Jordan and Syria.
The agreement with Lebanon contained no such provisions and was treated as an international border between Israel and Lebanon, which only stipulated that the armed forces would be withdrawn to the Israeli-Lebanese border. The second point – the return of civilians to the region – has given rise to many disputes. The Chairman of the Joint Armistice Commission may interpret his duties and powers under the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement only in such a way that the return of Arab and Israeli civilians is possible in equal numbers to the number of Arab and Israeli civilians before the end of the British Mandate. Following this principle, the president allowed Arab and Israeli civilians to return to the region from September 8 to resume their civilian lives. By the end of January 1950, the number of Israelis returning to the area under this verdict was roughly equivalent to the number of Israelis who had lived there at the end of the mandate regime. Iraq, whose forces actively participated 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 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Jordan,[3] and there was no separate agreement with Iraq. The first UN mediation by Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte led to a peace plan that was rejected by all parties, and Bernadotte himself was assassinated by Lehi extremists in September 1948. When Israel reached the final armistice of the war in July 1949, the new state controlled one-fifth more territory than the original partition plan had established, and refused to return to the original partition line. Jordan occupied the West Bank, which was much of the territory the UN had allocated to the stillborn Palestinian state, and more than 600,000 Arab refugees fled their homes in an exodus that began before May 1948. Some were driven out by Israeli troops, especially from the towns of Lod and Ramla in the strategic area near Tel Aviv airport. The Israeli government refused to allow these refugees, who had gathered under UN custody in camps in Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon and Syria, to return home to Israel, and many Palestinians were to remain in these camps indefinitely.
That agreement was reached last summer in principle and under negotiation before the Palestinian Conciliation Commission in Lausanne, and the Government of Israel has requested the support of the respective Joint Ceasefire Commissions from the Chief of Staff to bring the agreement into force. The main tasks assigned to the four Joint Armistice Commissions under the General Armistice Agreements were to prevent any resumption of hostilities, to organize the exchange of prisoners of war, to establish permanent ceasefire demarcation lines in accordance with the principles set out in the General Armistice Agreements and to define the Implementation of provisions to facilitate the transition to lasting peace in Palestine. The four comprehensive ceasefire agreements must remain in force until the Palestinian conflict is resolved peacefully, but they can be revised by mutual agreement between the parties. In the absence of such mutual agreement, either Party may, after the entry into force of the Agreements for a period of one year, request the Secretary-General of the United Nations to convene a Conference of representatives of both Parties to revise the Convention. .