Room for Peace

Glossary

A peace treaty is not an armistice, and “normalization” sounds different in Hebrew and in Arabic. Here are the words that keep coming up on the site, each in a sentence or two. For contested words we say who says what and why, without ruling.

20 min read

Kinds of documents

Peace treaty
A binding agreement between states that ends the state of war between them and sets up full relations: an agreed border, embassies, security arrangements. On this site only two documents carry this label: the treaty with Egypt (1979) and the treaty with Jordan (1994).
Normalization agreement
An agreement that opens full, public relations (embassies, flights, trade) between states that had no relations but never fought each other on a shared front. For that reason the site keeps it apart from a peace treaty; see the Abraham Accords. The word itself is charged; see “normalization” further down the page.
Interim agreement
An agreement that sets temporary arrangements for a limited period and leaves the hardest questions for later. The 1995 Interim Agreement (Oslo II) was planned for five years;1 because parts of it still operate, the site labels it “interim arrangement still applying”.
Armistice
An agreement to stop the fighting for an open-ended period, without ending the state of war and without fixing borders. The 1949 agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria are of this kind; the one with Jordan says that its lines do not prejudge future borders or the claims of either side.2
Ceasefire (cessation of hostilities)
A halt to the shooting. It can last a day or years, and by itself it settles nothing about the causes of the fighting. The site files armistices, separations of forces and ceasefires in one family; see the Gaza ceasefire and the 2024 cessation of hostilities in Lebanon.
Disengagement (separation of forces)
After a ceasefire the two armies pull back to agreed lines, usually with a buffer zone between them that a UN force watches. See Sinai 1974–1975 and the Golan 1974. Do not confuse it with Israel's “disengagement” of 2005, which was a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with no agreement at all.
Framework
A document that fixes principles and a path for further negotiation, not the detailed arrangements themselves. Camp David 1978 produced two frameworks: one led to the treaty with Egypt; the other, on Palestinian self-government, was never implemented.
Declaration of principles
A short agreed text that states principles and a timetable and leaves the details to later agreements. The best known is the Oslo Declaration of Principles, signed in 1993 after Israel and the PLO recognised each other.3
Memorandum (memorandum of understanding)
A shorter and usually less formal document that records what the sides undertake to do, often in order to carry out an agreement that already exists. The Wye River (1998) and Sharm el-Sheikh (1999) memoranda set timetables for steps promised in the Oslo agreements.4
Initiative
A proposal that a state, a group of states or private citizens put on the table. Nobody has signed it and nobody is bound by it until the parties adopt it. See the Arab Peace Initiative (states) and the Geneva Initiative (citizens).
Road map
A plan in stages, with an order and a timetable, in which each stage depends on the one before. The Roadmap that the Quartet released in 2003 aimed at a two-state solution;3 it was a plan addressed to the parties, not an agreement they signed.
Ratification
The formal act by which a state confirms that it agrees to be bound by a treaty.5 When a treaty needs ratification, the signature alone does not yet bind the state;5 that is why the site labels the 1983 Israel–Lebanon agreement “signed, never in force”.
Entry into force
The moment from which a treaty legally binds the states that consented to it; the treaty itself usually says when that is.5 On the agreement pages, look at the fact card: the date and the status are shown there separately.
“In force”
A status label on this site: the agreement is legally binding today. It does not mean that relations are warm or that every clause has been carried out, which is why there is also a label “in force, relations strained” and a separate section on what was and was not implemented.
Annex
An attachment that is part of the agreement and holds the detail: maps, timetables, security arrangements. Annex I of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, for example, deals with the boundary.6
Side letter and exchange of letters
A letter attached to an agreement, in which a party or a mediator records a commitment or a position that is not in the main text. Sometimes the letters are the agreement: in an exchange of letters the agreement lies in the exchange itself,5 as in the 1993 letters of mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO.7

The vocabulary of diplomacy

Permanent status (final-status issues)
The final deal meant to end the conflict, and the questions Oslo left for it: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security and borders.8 Camp David 2000, the Annapolis talks and other rounds tried; none ended in an agreement. See Efforts that did not ripen.
Mutual recognition
Each side formally acknowledges the other. In the 1993 letters the PLO recognised Israel's right to exist in peace and security, and Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.7 The two halves are not equal: on one side a state was recognised, on the other a representative organisation.
Self-determination
The right of a people to decide its own political future, for example to have a state of its own. The UN Charter names equal rights and the self-determination of peoples among the purposes of the organisation.9 This site holds that the right belongs to both peoples, Israeli and Palestinian.
Sovereignty
The final say of a state over its own territory, borders and laws, without needing another state's permission. Resolution 242 calls for respect for the sovereignty of every state in the area.10 Much of the negotiating is about exactly this: who is sovereign where, and which limits a sovereign accepts.
Autonomy (self-rule)
Residents run their own daily affairs, such as schools, health and police, while borders, external security and foreign relations stay in someone else's hands. It is less than a state. The 1978 Camp David framework proposed Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza for five years,11 and the Oslo accords set up a version of it.
Confidence-building measures
Small steps that each side can see and check, taken to show it is serious before the big questions are opened: releasing prisoners, opening a crossing, stopping a hostile broadcast. They do not solve the conflict; they are meant to make the next step possible. The Roadmap was built on reciprocal steps of this kind.
Land swaps
The idea that Israel would keep some land beyond the 1967 lines, mainly large settlement blocs, and give the Palestinian state land from inside Israel in return. How much land, and whether the exchange is equal, is disputed; compare the Clinton Parameters with the Geneva Initiative.
Security arrangements
The clauses that say which forces may be where, with which weapons, who watches the border and who gives early warning. In the Oslo accords they are one of the issues left for permanent status.8 In the treaty with Egypt they take the form of limited-force zones in Sinai.12
Demilitarisation
An agreement that armed forces, or certain weapons, will be kept out of an area or limited there. Resolution 242 already mentions demilitarised zones as one way to guarantee security.10 Several proposals speak of a demilitarised Palestinian state; what exactly that would cover is itself a matter for negotiation.
Third-party guarantees
A commitment by an outside state or organisation to help an agreement hold: observers on the ground, money, political backing. The Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai is an example.13 A guarantee supports the parties' will to keep an agreement; it does not replace it.
Shuttle diplomacy
A mediator travels back and forth between capitals carrying proposals, because the sides will not sit in one room. The term is tied to Henry Kissinger's journeys after the 1973 war,14 which produced the agreements in Sinai and on the Golan.
Back channel
Secret talks held away from the official negotiating table, so that ideas can be tried without either side paying a public price. The Oslo accords began in a secret channel in Norway.15
Track two
Unofficial meetings between academics, former officials and civil-society figures from both sides, who speak for themselves and not for their governments. “Track one” is the official negotiation. The Geneva Initiative and the People's Voice grew out of work of this kind.
Spoilers
The conflict researcher Stephen Stedman's term for leaders or groups who use violence to wreck an agreement they see as a threat to their power and interests.16 There are spoilers on every side; the site's page on violence gives documented examples.
The Quartet
A group of four set up in 2002 to help mediate Middle East peace negotiations: the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.17 In 2003 it released the Roadmap.3
Mediator, witness, guarantor
Three different jobs. A mediator helps the sides agree but decides nothing for them. A witness signs to confirm the deal was made, as the United States did on the Egypt–Israel peace treaty.12 A guarantor takes on a commitment of its own to help carry it out. The agreement pages list each person's role separately.

Places and lines

The Green Line (the 1949 armistice lines)
The lines drawn in the 1949 armistice agreements, above all between Israel and Jordan. The agreements themselves say these lines do not decide future borders,2 so the Green Line is not an agreed final border. It was the line of actual control until 1967, and most peace proposals start from it.
The 1967 lines (the lines of 4 June 1967)
The lines as they stood on the eve of the 1967 war; in the West Bank and around the Gaza Strip they coincide with the Green Line. When a proposal speaks of a border “based on the 1967 lines”, as the Arab Peace Initiative and the Geneva Initiative do, this is what it means.
The Blue Line
The line the United Nations identified in 2000 in order to confirm that Israel had withdrawn from Lebanon. It is not a border: according to the UN force in Lebanon, the two countries have no agreed official border.18 See the Blue Line and Resolution 1701.
International border
A border that two states have agreed on in a treaty. Israel has two: with Egypt, where the 1979 treaty adopted the boundary between Egypt and Mandatory Palestine,12 and with Jordan, as set in the 1994 treaty.19 With Lebanon, with Syria, and between Israel and a future Palestinian state there is no agreed border, only lines.
The West Bank (Judea and Samaria)
The territory west of the River Jordan that Israel captured in the 1967 war.20 Palestinians, the UN and most of the world say “the West Bank”; Israel's official usage, and many Israelis, say “Judea and Samaria”, the biblical names of the area. This site writes “the West Bank” in all three languages.
The Gaza Strip
A narrow coastal strip between Israel and Egypt, captured by Israel in 1967.20 In 2005 Israel withdrew its settlers and soldiers but kept control of the Strip's borders, coast and airspace.3 In 2007 Hamas seized it by force.3 See the 2005 disengagement and the Gaza ceasefire.
East Jerusalem
The part of the city, Old City included, that Israel captured in 196720 and then placed under Israeli law. In Resolution 478 the Security Council declared Israel's 1980 Basic Law on Jerusalem, and measures like it, null and void.21 Israel sees the whole city as its capital; Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The Golan Heights
A plateau that Israel captured from Syria in 1967.20 In 1981 Israel decided to apply its law there; the Security Council said in Resolution 497 that the decision had no legal validity and demanded that it be rescinded.22 A UN force has watched the line between the two armies since the 1974 separation of forces.
Sinai
The Egyptian peninsula between the Suez Canal and the Negev. Israel captured it in 196720 and returned it to Egypt in stages under the 1979 peace treaty; an international force, the MFO, monitors the security arrangements there.13
Areas A, B and C
The three zones into which the 1995 Interim Agreement divided the West Bank. Area A, the Palestinian cities: Palestinian civil and security responsibility. Area B, the Palestinian rural communities: Palestinian civil responsibility and overriding Israeli responsibility for security. Area C, the settlements and open land: full Israeli control.1 The division was meant to be temporary.
Settlements
Israeli communities built since 1967 in the territories captured that year. Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016) says they have no legal validity.23 Israeli governments reject that finding, and many Israelis simply call them communities (yishuvim). For Palestinians they are the most visible sign of the occupation, built on the land meant for their state.
The separation barrier (security fence / wall)
Fences and concrete walls that Israel began building in the early 2000s, mostly inside the West Bank rather than on the Green Line.3 Israel calls it the security fence, built to stop attackers. Palestinians call it the apartheid wall or the annexation wall, because of its route. The UN and the International Court of Justice say “the wall”; in 2004 the court found the sections inside occupied territory contrary to international law.24 This site writes “the separation barrier”.
The Philadelphi corridor (Salah al-Din axis)
The narrow strip along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. “Philadelphi” is the Israeli army's name for it; in Arabic it is the Salah al-Din axis. Israel left it in the 2005 disengagement, and Egypt deployed 750 border police along it by arrangement with Israel.25 Since the war in Gaza, control of the corridor is again disputed between Israel and Egypt.26
The Temple Mount / Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Haram al-Sharif)
One walled compound in Jerusalem's Old City, with two names. For Jews it is the Temple Mount, where the two ancient Temples stood, the holiest place in Judaism. For Muslims it is the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, al-Haram al-Sharif, home of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the third-holiest place in Islam. In the 1994 peace treaty Israel undertook to respect Jordan's special role in Jerusalem's Muslim holy shrines.19
The Cave of the Patriarchs / the Ibrahimi Mosque
The ancient building in Hebron that, by tradition, stands over the tombs of Abraham and his family; it is holy to Jews and to Muslims. On 25 February 1994 Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli, murdered Muslim worshippers at prayer there; the Security Council condemned the massacre.27 For the arrangements in the city see the Hebron Protocol.

Bodies and texts

The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization)
The umbrella body of the Palestinian national movement. It represents Palestinians in negotiations and at the UN, where it has had observer status since the 1970s.3 In 1993 the PLO and Israel recognised each other,7 and it was the PLO, not the Palestinian Authority, that signed the Oslo accords.8 See the PLO's road, 1974–1988.
The Palestinian Authority (PA)
The self-government body set up in 1994 under the Gaza–Jericho Agreement.28 In the West Bank it runs civil life in Areas A and B, and security in Area A. It was designed for an interim period and is not a state. Since Hamas seized Gaza in 20073 it has governed in the West Bank only.
Hamas
A Palestinian Islamist movement (the name is an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement”) and a terrorist organisation, listed as such by the European Union among others.29 Hamas won the Palestinian legislative election of 200630 and took over the Gaza Strip by force in 2007.3 On 7 October 2023 Hamas led a terrorist attack in Israel in which innocent civilians were murdered and hostages were taken.31 Hamas is not the Palestinian people.
The Arab League
The regional organisation of the Arab states, founded in 1945, with 22 members.32 In 2002 the League adopted the Arab Peace Initiative.
UNRWA
The United Nations agency for Palestine refugees. The General Assembly set it up in December 1949 and it began work in May 1950;33 it runs schools, clinics and relief in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The site's page on the neighbours gives its registered-refugee figures, with their dates.
Security Council Resolution 242 (1967)
Passed on 22 November 1967, after the war, it is where “land for peace” comes from: Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the conflict, an end to the state of war, and every state's right to live in peace within secure and recognised borders. It also calls for a just settlement of the refugee problem.10 The English text says “from territories”, without “the”:10 Israel reads this as leaving room for border changes, the Arab states as a demand to leave all of them. See the page on Resolution 242.
Security Council Resolution 338 (1973)
Adopted during the 1973 war. It calls for a ceasefire within 12 hours, for Resolution 242 to be carried out, and for negotiations to begin towards a just and durable peace.34 The two numbers usually travel together, as “242 and 338”; see the Geneva Conference of 1973.
General Assembly Resolution 181 (the Partition Plan)
On 29 November 1947 the UN General Assembly recommended ending the British Mandate and dividing Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with a special international regime for Jerusalem.353 It was a recommendation and did not itself create either state. The Jewish leadership accepted it; the Palestinian Arab leadership and the Arab states rejected it.36
General Assembly Resolution 194
Passed in December 1948.37 Its best-known passage says that refugees who wish to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be allowed to do so as soon as practicable, and that those who choose not to return should be compensated.38 Palestinians base the right of return on it; Israeli governments have had reservations about using it as a basis for a settlement.39
The Paris Protocol
The 1994 economic agreement between Israel and the PLO. It made the shekel legal tender in PA areas, let the PA set customs on some imports, and has Israel collect taxes on goods bound for the PA and pass them on.28 Built for the interim period, it still shapes the economic relationship; see the Paris Protocol and the Gaza–Jericho Agreement.
QIZ (Qualifying Industrial Zones)
Industrial zones whose products enter the United States duty-free on condition that they contain an Israeli component. Egypt, Israel and the United States signed the protocol on 14 December 2004.40 It is an example of an economic incentive attached to a peace treaty; see the treaty with Egypt.
UNDOF
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan Heights. The Security Council set it up in 1974 to supervise the separation of forces between Israel and Syria.41
UNIFIL
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, set up by the Security Council in 197842 and enlarged after the 2006 war by Resolution 1701.43 Under a Security Council decision of August 2025 the force is due to end its operations on 31 December 2026.44 See the Blue Line and Resolution 1701.
MFO (Multinational Force and Observers)
An international force that does not belong to the UN and monitors, in Sinai, the security arrangements of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. It was created by a protocol of August 1981, after it became clear that the UN would not be able to provide a force.13
The International Court of Justice (ICJ)
The United Nations court, which sits in The Hague. It decides legal disputes between states and gives advisory opinions to UN bodies;45 it does not try individuals.
Advisory opinion
The International Court of Justice's legal answer to a question put by a UN body. It is not binding, but in the court's own words it carries great legal weight and moral authority.45 Two concern this conflict: on the wall in 2004,24 and of July 2024, which found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.46
The International Criminal Court (ICC)
A separate court, also in The Hague, that tries people, not states, for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Palestine joined it in 2015; Israel disputes its jurisdiction, and the judges held that Israel's consent is not required.47 In November 2024 it issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, for the former defence minister Yoav Gallant and for the Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif;47 in February 2025 the warrant for Deif was withdrawn, after prosecutors reported reliable information that he had been killed.48 A warrant is an accusation, not a conviction.

Words each side uses

Nakba
Arabic for “catastrophe”: the Palestinians' name for the displacement, the refugeehood and the loss of homes and property in the 1948 war.49 For Palestinians it is the start of a story that continues; many Israelis hear in the word a challenge to the founding of the state itself. In this site's view, recognising the Nakba does not deny Israel's independence; see the page on the Palestinian story.
War of Independence (the 1948 war)
The Israeli name for the war that began after the partition vote and widened when armies of Arab states crossed the border on the proclamation of Israel in May 1948.36 It is the same war that Palestinians remember as the Nakba. In its own voice the site writes “the 1948 war”.
Naksa
Arabic for “setback”: the Arab name for the defeat of June 1967, in which Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Sinai and the Golan Heights.20 For Palestinians it marks the start of the occupation, and a second wave of displacement.3
The Six-Day War / the June 1967 war
One war, two names. Israelis name it for its length; in Arabic it is the June 1967 war, or the Naksa. It lasted from 5 to 10 June 1967.20 In its own voice the site writes “the 1967 war”.
The Yom Kippur War / the October War (Tishreen, Ramadan)
The war that began on 6 October 1973 with an Egyptian and Syrian attack.50 Israelis name it after the holy day on which it broke out, and remember a surprise that cost a heavy price. In Egypt it is the October War or the Tenth of Ramadan War, in Syria the Tishreen War, and both mark it as a victory. In its own voice the site writes “the 1973 war”.
Intifada
Arabic for “shaking off”: a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation. The first began in 1987;3 the second began in late September 2000, after Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount / Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.3 The word does not describe a single method:51 Palestinians use it for a popular uprising, while most Israelis remember the second above all for the suicide bombings against civilians.
Occupation
In international law: control of territory by a foreign army that is not its sovereign. The UN and the International Court of Justice use the word for the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, “the occupied Palestinian territory”;46 for Palestinians “the occupation” is the everyday name for the reality they live in. Israeli governments have mostly avoided the word and spoken of disputed territories, and inside Israel the word itself is argued over.
Annexation / “applying sovereignty”
Two names for one act: a state declares that territory it controls is part of it. Israelis who support it say “applying sovereignty” or “applying Israeli law”, because to them the land is not foreign. Palestinians, the Arab states and most governments say “annexation”, and point to the principle in Resolution 242 that territory may not be acquired by war.10 In 2020 such a plan for parts of the West Bank was on the table;52 see the Trump plan and the agreement with the UAE.
Normalization (tatbi‘)
In Hebrew and English the word sounds hopeful: ordinary relations, flights, trade. In Arabic, tatbi‘ is often an accusation: it means treating relations with Israel as normal while the occupation continues and the Palestinians have no state. That is why an agreement between governments does not necessarily bring the public with it; see the Abraham Accords and the site's comparison page.
Right of return
The Palestinian claim that the refugees of 1948 and their descendants are entitled to return to the homes and places they left, in what is now Israel. Palestinians base it on Resolution 19438 and see it as a personal and a national right. Most Israelis reject it, because a large-scale return would end the Jewish majority in Israel. Proposals have looked for middle ground; the Clinton Parameters listed five possible destinations for refugees.
Refugees
In this conflict, usually the Palestinians who lost their homes in the 1948 war, and their descendants. UNRWA registers people who lived in Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 and lost home and livelihood in that war, with their descendants.53 Israelis also recall the Jews forced to leave Arab countries and Iran in the twentieth century, more than 850,000 people according to Israel's foreign ministry.54 The site does not set the two stories against each other.
Shahid (martyr) and terror victim
Two words that show how differently the two publics speak of their dead. In Arabic a shahid, a martyr, is someone who died for faith or homeland. Palestinians use it for almost anyone killed in the conflict, from a child killed in a bombing to a person killed while carrying out an attack, and that second use sounds to Israelis like praise for murder. In Israel, people killed in attacks are “terror victims”, and soldiers who were killed are “the fallen”. The site uses neither vocabulary: it says who was killed, by whom, and whether they were civilians.
Cold peace
A peace between governments more than between peoples: the treaty holds, the border is quiet and there is security coordination, but trade, tourism and public warmth stay thin. Researchers use the term for Israel's peace with Egypt and with Jordan;5556 the comparison page shows what that looks like in practice.

Sources

You do not have to agree with us. That is what the sources are for: open them, compare and check for yourself.

  1. Research Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF)
    Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement (Oslo II, 1995)
  2. Primary Avalon Project, Yale Law School · 3 April 1949
    Jordanian-Israeli General Armistice Agreement, April 3, 1949
  3. Primary United Nations (UNISPAL)
    History of the Question of Palestine
  4. Primary United Nations, Division for Palestinian Rights (UNISPAL)
    Middle East peace process documents, 1998–1999 (Wye River and Sharm el-Sheikh memoranda)
  5. Reference United Nations Treaty Collection
    Glossary of terms relating to treaty actions
  6. Primary Avalon Project, Yale Law School · 26 October 1994
    Treaty of Peace between Israel and Jordan – Annex I (boundary; Naharayim/Baqura and Zofar/Al-Ghamr areas)
  7. Primary United Nations Peacemaker · 9 September 1993
    Israel–PLO Mutual Recognition, Letters and Speeches
  8. Primary PA-X Peace Agreements Database, University of Edinburgh · 13 September 1993
    Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements ('Oslo Accords')
  9. Primary United Nations · 26 June 1945
    Charter of the United Nations, Chapter I: Purposes and Principles
  10. Primary UN Security Council (text hosted by UNSCR.com) · 22 November 1967
    Security Council Resolution 242 (1967), full text
  11. Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 17 September 1978
    Camp David Accords: A Framework for Peace in the Middle East; Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel
  12. Primary Avalon Project, Yale Law School · 26 March 1979
    Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt, March 26, 1979
  13. Official archive Multinational Force and Observers
    MFO – Origins
  14. Official archive U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
    Shuttle Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1974–1975
  15. Official archive Government of Norway (regjeringen.no)
    Norway's involvement in the peace process in the Middle East
  16. Research International Security 22(2); publication page at CISAC, Stanford University · 1 October 1997
    Stephen J. Stedman, Spoiler Problems in Peace Processes
  17. Reference Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO)
    Middle East Quartet
  18. Primary UNIFIL (United Nations) · 19 December 2012
    Mr. Blue Barrel explains the Blue line
  19. Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 26 October 1994
    Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 26 October 1994
  20. Research U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
    The 1967 Arab-Israeli War
  21. Primary UN Security Council (text hosted by UNSCR.com) · 1980
    Security Council Resolution 478 (1980)
  22. Primary UN Security Council (text hosted by UNSCR.com) · 1981
    Security Council Resolution 497 (1981)
  23. Primary UN Security Council (text hosted by UNSCR.com) · 2016
    Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016)
  24. Primary International Court of Justice · 9 July 2004
    Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (advisory opinion of 9 July 2004), case page
  25. Research Congressional Research Service · 16 September 2005
    Israel's Disengagement from Gaza (RS22000)
  26. Research Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Sada) · 31 August 2026
    Gas and Peace: Can Energy Trade Contain Egypt-Israel Conflict?
  27. Primary United Nations Security Council (text hosted by unscr.com) · 18 March 1994
    Security Council Resolution 904 (1994)
  28. Primary United Nations, Division for Palestinian Rights (UNISPAL) · October 1994
    Developments related to the Middle East peace process, April–September 1994 (texts of the Paris Protocol and the Gaza–Jericho Agreement)
  29. Primary Council of the European Union · 12 April 2024
    EU sanctions concerning Hamas and the 7 October terrorist attacks, 12 April 2024
  30. Research Congressional Research Service · 28 February 2006
    Palestinian Elections (RL33269)
  31. Primary UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel · 27 May 2024
    Report A/HRC/56/26 (advance unedited version), 27 May 2024
  32. Press CNN (via KTVZ) · 7 March 2024
    Arab League Fast Facts
  33. Research UNRWA
    Who We Are (historical chronology)
  34. Primary UN Security Council (text hosted by UNSCR.com) · 1973
    Security Council Resolution 338 (1973)
  35. Primary United Nations General Assembly · 29 November 1947
    Resolution 181 (II): Future government of Palestine (Plan of Partition with Economic Union), 29 November 1947
  36. Research U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
    The Arab-Israeli War of 1948
  37. Primary United Nations General Assembly · 11 December 1948
    Resolution 194 (III), 11 December 1948 (official document A/RES/194(III))
  38. Reference UNRWA
    Resolution 194 (the passage on refugees, as reproduced by UNRWA)
  39. Research The Washington Institute for Near East Policy · 2013
    Stalled Arab Peace Initiative Reaffirmed
  40. Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 14 December 2004
    Egypt–Israel–United States Qualifying Industrial Zones protocol, 14 December 2004
  41. Official archive UNDOF (United Nations)
    UNDOF Background
  42. Primary UN Security Council (reproduced by the Jewish Virtual Library) · 18 June 2000
    Statement by the President of the Security Council, S/PRST/2000/21
  43. Primary United Nations · 11 August 2006
    Security Council calls for end to hostilities between Hizbollah, Israel, unanimously adopting resolution 1701 (2006) (SC/8808)
  44. Primary United Nations Peacekeeping · 28 August 2025
    Security Council Extends UNIFIL's Mandate: Resolution 2790 (2025)
  45. Primary International Court of Justice
    Advisory Jurisdiction
  46. Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 19 July 2024
    International Court of Justice press release on the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024
  47. Reference International Commission of Jurists · November 2024
    Palestine/Israel: ICC Arrest Warrants for Israeli and Hamas Leaders a Significant Step in the Pursuit of Justice
  48. Press JusticeInfo.net (with AFP) · 26 February 2025
    ICC nixes arrest warrant for slain Hamas leader Deif
  49. Primary United Nations (UNISPAL)
    About the Nakba
  50. Reference Jewish Virtual Library
    The Yom Kippur War: Background and Overview
  51. Research Institute for Palestine Studies / Palestinian Museum (PalQuest)
    First Intifada and Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, 1987–1993
  52. Research Congressional Research Service · 30 January 2020
    Israel and the Palestinians: U.S. Peace Plan and Possible Israeli Annexation (IN11214)
  53. Primary UNRWA
    Palestine refugees (definition and eligibility)
  54. Reference Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mission of Israel to the EU and NATO
    Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands and from Iran
  55. Research Arab Barometer · 9 January 2025
    MENA Publics and the Future of Normalization with Israel (Michael Robbins)
  56. Research Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) · 12 September 2021
    The Old Peace Treaties vs. the Abraham Accords (Frank Musmar and Najat Al-Saied), Perspectives Paper no. 2,151