The revolution and pacts (66). The 1949 Armistice Agreements IV. The Jordanian Front. At the beginning of March 1949, talks began on the island of Rhodes between Israeli and Jordanian representatives under the chairmanship of UN mediator, Dr. Ralph Bunche. The major issues raised by Israel were free access to Jewish Holy Places in Jerusalem, border rectification, and the presence of Iraqi forces in the West Bank. Jordan sought to raise the Arab refugee question and the question of passage from the Old City of Jerusalem to Bethlehem. On April 3, 1948, the Jordanian-Israeli Armistice Agreement was signed, fixing the armistice line of the West Bank, transferring to Israel a number of Arab villages in the central part of the country and providing for a mixed committee to work out arrangements in Jerusalem. The Israeli-Jordanian General Armistice Agreement (GAA) was signed by Col. Ahmad Sidqi Bey al-Jundi for the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan and Reuven Shiloah and Col. Moshe Dayan on behalf of Israel. However, the Israel-Jordan GAA left unsettled a number of issues, such as the access of Jews to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem's Old City and the access of Jordanians to the south through the Bethlehem road. Those issues were to be resolved in later negotiations. But the failure of the secret peace negotiations between Israeli officials and King Abdullah of Jordan during 1949 and 1951, the assassination of the King in July 1951, and the ensuing rapid deterioration of Israeli-Jordanian relations served to block the resolution of those outstanding issues. Nevertheless, with many ups and downs, this agreement was maintained for almost twenty years as a more or less effective framework regulating relations between the two states. The most difficult issue, one that triggered occasional violence, was the widespread infiltration of displaced Palestinians (mostly 1948 refugees) across the armistice demarcation lines. These actions provoked Israeli retaliatory assaults and brought into question the viability of Article II of the agreement. Nevertheless, both sides were loath to destroy the foundations of their GAA and kept using its mechanisms for the exchange of mutual complaints and also for keeping the tenuous status quo alive. No-man's-lands designated by the GAA were divided by consent; the biweekly convoy to the Israeli enclave at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus was permitted to supply the Israeli police force stationed there and replace the policemen regularly; the mutual vulnerability of citizens in Jerusalem induced both sides. Negotiations on the sharing of the Jordan's waters in the early 1950s failed to achieve results, leaving Israel to press ahead to execute its own plan to divert a big part of these waters to the south of the country. The main points of the agreement were: * Jordanian forces remained in most positions held by them in the West Bank, particularly East Jerusalem which included the Old City. * Jordan withdrew its forces from their front posts overlooking the Plain of Sharon. In return, Israel agreed to allow Jordanian forces to take over positions in the West Bank previously held by Iraqi forces. * Exchange of territory: According to Article 6 Israel received a territory in the area known as Wadi Ara and the Little Triangle in exchange for territory in the southern hills of Hebron. The ancillary agreements arrived at earlier on the demilitarisation of Mount Scopus and of the area between the lines, including the Government House area, were incorporated. However, Israel's dissatisfaction with the UN and the other parties led to its withdrawal from the Armistice Agreement with Jordan in 1954.
