 Hello friends and followers, welcome back to my YouTube channel and as ever this is Daniel Rossell. I know the borders have sort of become a major theme on this YouTube channel, what can I say they're kind of important in the part of the world that I live in. The geopolitical fault lines as I like to say, the divide between countries and their ideologies. But if you'll humor me or maybe you're just interested, here's one more video on the thorny subject of the Green Line. I've discussed the Green Line also called the 1949 Armistice Border in several other videos. As I posted recently a section of the Green Line runs through the city of Jerusalem and for 19 years it served as the boundary that divided Israel on the west from Jordanian held territory on the east. In 1967 Israel conquered Jordanian held eastern Jerusalem as well as a Jordanian held west bank. Israel moved to unified Jerusalem bringing both its western and eastern sections into the boundary line of the Jerusalem municipality. The west bank as we know, usually called Judea and Samaria by Israelis for its historical name, has been under Israeli military control ever since. Although the idea of formally annexing the territory into official Israel under domestic law pops up on the political agenda regularly. The Green Line is a thorny subject in Israel to put it mildly. For the Israeli right and the settler movement, Israel legitimately captured the territory that was formally held by transjordan. Therefore the existence of the former armistice line between the two armies is completely irrelevant and really can only be used to delegitimize their presence beyond it. I would go so far as to say that for many in Israel the words Green Line, West Bank and Jerusalem are sort of dirty words. For the vast majority of the international community however the path and existence of the Green Line does remain highly relevant. That's because while it only serve as a de facto border for Israel between 1948 and 1967 they view Israel's activity to the east of it as being illegal under international law. When foreign governments criticise Israel for building in the west bank for instance the Green Line is what they use to distinguish between territory they consider to be legitimately held by Israel and that which they consider to be held under an unlawful military occupation. So although sectors of Israeli society kind of consider the mere mention of the Green Line to be an ineffable blasphemy of sorts there are many including those in the centre and on the left of the Israeli political spectrum who will still say that it has relevance. That's because they're willing to consider the idea that in a future agreement between Israel and a potential Palestinian state the Green Line seems like a logical boundary to use in order to split that territory. The idea has been roughly that a Palestinian state would exist to the east of the Green Line and Israel would exist to the west. Although this might seem like a simple resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this idea has a few big problems. The first is a question of what to do about the half a million Israeli citizens who already live to the east of the Green Line. They live in well-developed cities such as Ariel which is a population of more than 20,000. Even many on the Israeli left oppose the idea of uprooting entire communities like this from their homes. This view is strengthened by memories of when Israel did exactly this in the Gaza Strip kicking out entire communities there. This good faith effort towards peace by Israel was met by the totalitarian rule of a paramilitary government led by Hamas which is committed to Israel's destruction and which periodically sends thousands of rockets over its border with Israel. So what to do about Israel's entrenched population living in the area is a reason one why the Green Line will probably never be a final Israeli border. The second reason why Israel will never accept the Green Line as it stands as its final border with either a Palestinian state or any other state is the course of the Green Line as it runs through Jerusalem. As I explained in an earlier video the course of the Green Line as it meanders through Jerusalem can be seen using no more sophisticated technology than Google Maps. On that mapping tool it's marked out by a dotted line even though there are literally no physical demarcations of it on the ground in modern day Jerusalem. Sometimes it's a double dotted line because Israel and Jordan set down ceasefire lines that slightly differed in specific locations of the city resulting in the creation of No Man's Land which is up to about 1.8 kilometers wide at its widest. We can follow the Green Line on Google Maps from the west as we approach the city of Jerusalem. As we can see the boundary splits the southern neighborhood of Bezalpafa in half with its southern half and the city of Bethlehem on the far side of the boundary to the south. As we move north in Jerusalem towards the Old City we encounter the biggest stretch of No Man's Land created where the two armistice lines didn't meet up. The Green Line then meanders through the mixed Arab Jewish neighborhood of Abu Tor where there used to be border installations because the Israel-Jordan border would run through that neighborhood. Then we get to the Old City probably the most politically charged 0.9 square kilometers of territory on the planet bar none home to sites of religious and historic significance to Jews, Muslims and Christians. Do you notice anything about the boundary here of the Green Line? I'll pause for a few seconds so you can take a look at the map. If your answer was the entirety of the Old City is located over the Green Line isn't it? Then yep you'd be precisely correct. Many people forget that. Forget that the entirety of Jerusalem's famous Old City is located to the east of the Green Line and hence in the eyes of the international community is considered to be part of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Technically in the eyes of the international community there really is a much of a difference between Israeli-held territory in East Jerusalem and in what they call the West Bank. Because the international community considers the Jerusalem municipality boundary over the Green Line is kind of a legitimate well it's sort of a moot point so you could say that the Old City of Jerusalem is located in the West Bank if that was the term you used and in the eyes of most world government believe it or not you'd essentially be accurate. The massive problem however with this idea is the enormous significance of the Old City to the Jewish people and by extension the state of Israel. That's because the Old City contains the Temple Mount where two Jewish temples once stood and the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The site commonly mistaken as the holiest site in Judaism the Western Wall which is an extant part of a containing wall of that temple is also located in the heart of the Old City as is the Jewish Quarter. As the world's only Jewish country Israel sees itself as having a responsibility to maintain access to Judaism's most holy sites. In fact I think it would be fair to say that Israel's maintaining of access to these sites is a fundamental part of its character and mission as a state. It's worth pointing out that while the Temple Mount is the most obvious and perhaps poignant example there are literally hundreds of sites of significance to Jews located to the east of the Green Line and in the West Bank. These include sites like the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Rachel's tomb in Bethlehem and Joseph's tomb in Nablus to name only three. Nobody can predict the future course of the entrenched and bitter conflict between Israel and the Palestinians however one thing is essentially certain no matter what the constitution of its future governments the state of Israel is never going to concede control over its holiest sites to either a Palestinian state nor a multilateral organization such as the UN. Hence why the course of the Green Line agreed is an armistice line between Israel and Arab armies in 1949 will never be accepted by Israel as a final international border.