The role of the Israeli-Syrian mixed armistice commission in the fate of the Arabs of Krad al-Baqqara and Krad al-Ghaname 1948-1956

The 1949 Israeli-Syrian armistice agreement stipulated the establishment of a mixed armistice commission [MAC] to oversee the implementation of the terms of the agreement. One of the outcomes of this agreement was the creation of demilitarized zones inhabited by local Arab villagers. During Israel's War of Independence, the residents of Krad al-Baqqara and Krad al-Ghaname fled to Syria; the agreement enabled them to return to their lands in the demilitarized zone. Two years later, Israel moved them out of the demilitarized zone, but then allowed them once again to return. During the 1956 Sinai War most left the zone or were forced to leave for Syria. The legal status of the demilitarized zone meant that unlike the residents of other Arab cities and villages in Israel, these villagers were not under military rule, and that UN observers could intervene in their affairs. Unexplored documents paint a complex picture of the different interests and involvement of the IDF (which oversaw the Israeli Delegation to the Mixed Armistice Commission), the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Syrian government, and the UN observers in their fate.