West Bank
 The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية, al-diffä l-Ġarbīyä, Hebrew: הגדה המערבית, Hagadah Hamaaravit) is the area
west of the Jordan river that was occupied by Transjordan since 1949. The name "West Bank" was devised by Transjordanian
and British diplomats following World War II, when Jordan contemplated annexing a portion of the Palestinian Arab state
that was to be created when the British vacated Palestine, and later envisioned by the UN when it partitioned the
Palestine Mandate into Jewish and Arab states (See
Partition Resolution). Following Israeli territorial gains during the 1948 Arab-Israel war,
about 2,200 square miles were left in the territory of the West Bank. Currently about 2.4 million Arab Palestinians,
including a significant number of refugees of the 1948 Arab Israel War, live in the West Bank, along with about 250,000
Israeli settlers.
The area is currently officially under Israeli occupation or "administration" with partially autonomous government of
the
Palestinian National Authority. It incorporates part of the areas known since ancient times as
Judea and
Samaria. "Judea and Samaria" as a unit is the
name officially given to the West Bank in Israel, but the ancient areas of Judea and Samaria in fact overlapped into
current portions of Israel. The name is used by the Israeli government and military communiques, and by media
outlets and politicians associated with Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
To the west, north,
and south, the West Bank shares borders with the mainland Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, it shares a
border with Jordan. The West Bank also includes a significant coast line along the western bank of the Dead Sea and part
of the Dead Sea may be included in its territory. Since 1967, the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation.
Prior to the First World War, all of the area known to Europeans as
Palestine was part of the
Ottoman Empire. In the 1920 San Remo conference, the victorious Allies allocated the area to the British Mandate of
Palestine. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw the establishment of Israel in parts of the former Mandate, while the West Bank
was captured and annexed by Jordan, which destroyed any existing Jewish villages. The 1949 Armistice Agreements defined
its interim boundary. From 1948 until 1967, the area was under Jordanian rule, and Jordan did not officially relinquish
its claim to the area until 1988. Jordan's claim was not recognized by most other countries. The West Bank was
captured by Israel during the Six-Day War. Most of the residents are Arabs, although large numbers of Israeli settlements have been built in the region.
Most of the Arab portions of the West Bank are administered by the
Palestinian National Authority.
The West Bank has an anomalous international status, since Jordan's occupation was never recognized as legitimate by
most countries, and Jordan relinquished its territorial claims. The area is not occupied under the strict definition of
international law, since it is not territory of another sovereign, but most countries consider that Israeli rule there
constitutes occupation. Israeli courts apply most aspects of international law regarding occupation to cases where it is
relevant. The West Bank is legally distinct from the area of Jerusalem, which the UN declared to be an internationalized
Corpus Separatum in 1947.
Synonyms and alternate spellings:
Further Information: History
of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Palestine
Map of Palestine History
of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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