Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
leaving Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport could not fl y east like aircraft everywhere else in the world,
which use the Earth's rotation to assist takeoffs; instead, they had to head west, incurring extra
fuel costs, to avoid crossing into Jordanian and later Palestinian Authority territory.
The encirclement by hostile states brought not only strategic challenges for Israel but also
commercial ones. Only the Mediterranean was available to Israel as an open frontier. All roads,
railroads, and pipelines formerly used for transport into and through neighboring countries
were closed in 1948; those through Lebanon and Syria remain closed to this day.
Among other border issues added in the aftermath of the War of Independence was the Syr-
ian occupation of two small areas that had been part of the British Mandate for Palestine. One
of them was Hamat Gader, a hot spring dating back to Roman times, near where the borders
of Israel, Syria, and Jordan met.
More important was the Syrian takeover of a strip of land near the Sea of Galilee. A 1923
border agreement had given Israel control over the entire sea (actually a lake), including a
164-foot-wide (50-meter-wide) strip on its eastern shore and some other nearby areas. Shortly
after the War of Independence, however, the Syrians occupied this zone. That advance made it
possible for Syria to control the Jordan River and the sea — and fi re at Israeli farmers across the
frontier. There were repeated small-scale clashes here during the 1950s and 1960s. Israel took
back both of these border areas in the 1967 war.
Another small no-man's-land was created along sectors of the frontier between Israel and
Jordanian-ruled territory in the Jerusalem area. An unusual provision of the 1949 armistice
gave Israel control of a tiny enclave on Mount Scopus, where Hebrew University had its main
campus. Israel was entitled to keep a small police force on the hill, but the university had to
move elsewhere in the city. It returned many of its facilities to Mount Scopus after Israel cap-
tured all of Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
Despite the temporary nature of the 1949 agreements setting ceasefi re lines, within a few
years these borders came to be regarded as state frontiers. The geographical situation changed
in 1967, but even today the 1949 lines are viewed internationally as Israel's actual boundaries.
Informally, these are known as the “Green Line” borders because Israelis plant trees and crops
on its side right up to the border and because green designates that line on Israel's maps.
Post-1967
During the 1967 war, Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and cap-
tured a large amount of territory. From Egypt, Israel took the Sinai Peninsula (9,650 square
miles, or 25,000 square kilometers) and the Gaza Strip (146 square miles, or 378 square kilome-
ters). From Jordan, it took the West Bank (2,270 square miles, or 5,879 square kilometers) and
the eastern and other parts of Jerusalem (27 square miles, or 70 square kilometers). From Syria,
it took the Golan Heights (444 square miles, or 1,150 square kilometers). The gains in territory
improved Israel's strategic situation, but Israel also had to manage the populations of each of
these areas —Bedouin tribes in the Sinai; Druze in the Golan Heights; and Palestinian Arabs in
the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem. Equally, it had to decide how it regarded these
territories, whether as temporary, long-term, or permanent possessions. The frontiers were
known as the “Purple Line” borders because of the color used to show them on maps.
