Challenges in Defining an Israeli-Palestinian Border

Palestinian leaders plan to seek recognition of statehood at the United Nations this month. Below, explore some of the contentious issues that negotiators will face in drawing a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

Part 1: The Key Issues Explained

Part 2: The Battle of the Barrier

Part 3: The Settlement Issue

Part 4: Sharing Jerusalem

Borders and Barriers: An Overview

From the Green Line to the West Bank barrier to the Old
City in Jerusalem, the key issues explained, in maps

Individual Voices

 Different video perspectives on Israel and a Palestinian state.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi

Chairman of Pales-
tinian interest group

Uri Segal

Symphony conductor from Tel Aviv

Adalia Danielle Salomaa

Israeli

Marco Carmignani

U.N. Truce Super-
vision Organization

Images

 From locations on both sides of the Green Line.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

A new light rail train drives beside a wall of the Old City in Jerusalem. The Israeli light rail project has been criticized because parts of it run through areas that are on the predominantly-Palestinian side of the Green Line.

By JOE BURGESS, STEPHEN FARRELL, ALAN McLEAN, SERGIO PEÇANHA and ARCHIE TSE | 

Send Feedback

Sources: United Nations; U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Occupied Palestinian Territory; Israeli government; Palestinian Authority; Obama video by the White House; image of the historic Green Line map by the United Nations; Six-Day War photograph by the Israeli Government Press Office/Associated Press