Hudna

A hudna (from the Arabic هدنة meaning "calm" or "quiet") is a truce or armistice. It is sometimes mistranslated as "cease-fire". In his medieval dictionary of classical Arabic, the Lisan al-Arab, Ibn al-Manzur defined it as:

A famous early hudna was the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between Muhammad and the Quraysh tribe.

Hudna in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

In English, the term is most frequently used in reference to a ceasefire agreement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly one that would involve organizations such as Hamas. The concept of hudna was first introduced to efforts to reduce violence in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians by a Queen's University Belfast Professor in the period of 1999-2003 as a result of protracted negotiations with the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and abroad in countries like Lebanon and Syria. Some others claim that Israeli businessman Eyal Erlich in 2001, after seeing a hudna being declared in order to calm a feud in Jordan (cf. Haaretz, January 2, 2002); introduced the idea, unsuccessfully, that Israel should suggest a mutual hudna as a prelude to a more lasting peace.