No man's land in the Latrun area (NML) was a strip of territory covering , 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.

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. Under international law, the territory is not considered to be occupied. Both the United Nations and the European Union consider Israeli localities in the Latrun no man's land area to be illegal settlements.

Background

The

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Six-Day War. On Israeli maps since then, both the Armistice line and the no man's land enclave have disappeared. The Separation Barrier cuts off the entire Latrun area within the Israeli side of the fence. Four settlements were established in the NML area, Kfar Ruth, Lapid,

Maccabim Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut ( he, מוֹדִיעִין-מַכַּבִּים-רֵעוּת) is an Israeli city located in central Israel, about southeast of Tel Aviv and west of Jerusalem, and is connected to those two cities via Highway 443. In t ...

and

Shilat Shilat ( he, שִׁילָּת) is a moshav partially in Israel and partially in the Latrun salient of the Green Line. Located around a kilometre north of Modi'in, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Modi'in Regional Council. In it had a po ...

. 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, cultivating land partially leased from the Catholic authorities. Israeli municipal jurisdiction was extended over these five settlements. By 2010 1,200 Israeli settlers had established homes in the area. According to

Raja Shehadeh Raja Shehadeh (born 1951) is a Palestinian lawyer, human rights activist and writer. He co-founded the award-winning Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in 1979. In 2008, he won the Orwell Prize, Britain's pre-eminent award for politic ...

, Israeli effectively annexed the area of no man's land in 1967. No formal act of annexation exists. In

peace negotiations A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surre ...

, according to Gideon Biger, the Israeli position has been that they retain as sovereign property half of the NML, 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.

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* * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Disputed territories in Asia Territorial disputes

Legal status

Background

See also

Notes

Citations

Sources