No man's land (Latrun)
No man's land in the Latrun area (NML) was a strip of territory covering 46.4 square kilometres (17.9 sq mi),[a] in the area of Latrun. Israel considers the area of the NML to be a part of its state, while Palestinians regard it as a part of the West Bank.[1]
Legal status
The strips of territory known as no man's land in the Latrun and Jerusalem regions were among the territories occupied by Israel following the 1967 war.[2] Both the United Nations[3] and the European Union[4] consider Israeli localities in the Latrun no man's land to be illegal settlements.[5]
Background
The 1949 Armistice Agreements demarcated the NML by two lines reflecting the respective positions of the two armies at the time of the ceasefire, with the land between the lines defined as no man's land, controlled by neither party,[6] lying within Jordanian territory.[7]
In 1967, Israeli forces occupied the Latrun area early on the second day of the Six-Day War. Three Palestinian villages, Bayt Nuba, Imwas and Yalo in the no man's land were destroyed. Some years later the site of the villages was turned into Canada Park, stretching from the NML over the boundary and into the West Bank.[8] On Israeli maps since then, both the Armistice line and the no man's land enclave have disappeared.[b] The Separation Barrier cuts off the entire Latrun area within the Israeli side of the fence. Four settlements were established in the NML, Kfar Ruth, Lapid, Maccabim and Shilat. The Israeli-Palestinian village of Neve Shalom, founded on a project of creating a model for Israeli-Palestinian communities, was also established in the NML,[9] cultivating land partially leased from the Catholic authorities.[10] Israeli municipal jurisdiction was extended over these five settlements. By 2010 1,200 Israeli settlers had established homes in the area.[11]
According to Raja Shehadeh, Israeli effectively annexed the area of no man's land in 1967.[12] No formal act of annexation exists. In peace negotiations, according to Gideon Biger, the Israeli position has been that they retain as sovereign property half of the NLM, while the other half, while belonging to Palestinians, should remain part of Israel, and the Palestinians compensated for its loss by accepting an area of similar dimensions elsewhere.[9]
Notes
- ^ The figure of 38.2 km² given in some sources reflects the Israeli negotiating position for areas they wish to annex by consent after peace negotiations (Djerejian 2010, p. 23).
- ^ "In the Latrun area, the direct visual translation of political reality since the 1967 Israeli occupation can be analyzed effortlessly; the no man's land and the 1949 Armistice line have disappeared.
Citations
- ^ Biger 2016, pp. 122, 129.
- ^ Alzoughbi 2019.
- ^ OCHA.
- ^ Auerbach 2017.
- ^ Ahren 2018.
- ^ Alzoughbi 2019, p. 116.
- ^ Biger 2016, p. 127.
- ^ Falah, p. 967.
- ^ a b Biger 2016, p. 129.
- ^ Frantzman & Kark 2014, pp. 387–388.
- ^ Djerejian 2010, p. 23.
- ^ Shehadeh 2015, p. ?.
Sources
- Ahren, Raphael (1 August 2018). "Switzerland to hold reception in no-man's land between Israel, West Bank". The Times of Israel.
- Alzoughbi, Basheer (2019). "The Relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (Palestine v United States of America) a Commentary on the Merits of the Case, Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and Admissibility of Palestine's Application". University of Bologna Law Review. 4 (1): 114–205. doi:10.6092/issn.2531-6133/9425.
- Auerbach, Shakked (8 July 2017). "No One Knows Actually Where Israel Where Israel Ends and the Palestinian Territories Begin". Haaretz.
- Bailey, Sydney D. (2016). Four Arab-Israeli Wars and the Peace Process. Springer. ISBN 978-1-349-20967-5.
- Biger, Gideon (2016). "Latrun – A No Man's Land in Israel" (PDF). The European Journal of Geopolitics. 4: 122–131.
- "Crossing the Line The Tel Aviv Jerusalem Fast Train (A1): Flash report". Who Profits?. July 2017.
- Djerejian, Edward P (2 February 2010). "Getting to the Territorial Endgame of an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement" (PDF). James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. pp. 879–902.
- Falah, Ghazi-Walid (2004). "War, Peace and Land Seizure in Palestine's Border Area". Third World Quarterly. 25 (5): 955–975. doi:10.1080/0143659042000232054. JSTOR 3993704. S2CID 153744557.
- Frantzman, Seth; Kark, Ruth (May 2014). "The Catholic Church in Palestine/Israel: Real Estate in 'Terra Sancta'". Middle Eastern Studies. 50 (3): 370–396. JSTOR 24583548.
- Kershner, Isabel (6 September 2011). "Elusive Line Defines Lives in Israel and the West Bank". The New York Times.
- "Settlements in West Bank Index" (PDF). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
- Shehadeh, Raja (2015). Language of War, Language of Peace: Palestine, Israel and the Search for Justice. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-78283-121-1.
- "UN Yearbook 1965" (PDF). The United Nations. 1966.