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Local Government in the West Bank  •  • [ e]

JENIN Jenin TULKARM Tulkarm Tubas NABLUS Nablus Shomron Qalqilya QALQILYA Salfit ARIEL RAMALLAH Ramallah and Al-Bireh Matte Binyamin MODI'IN ILLIT JERICHO Biq'at HaYarden Jericho MA'ALE ADUMMIM JERUSALEM Jerusalem BETAR ILLIT BETHLEHEM Gush Etzion Bethlehem Megilot HEBRON Hebron Har Hebron YATTA

The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية, aḍ-Ḍiffä l-Ġarbīyä, Hebrew: הגדה המערבית‎, Hagadah Hamaaravit), also known as Judea and Samaria, is a landlocked territory on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. Since 1967 most of the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, this territory was part of 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. The 1949 Armistice Agreements defined its interim boundary. From 1948 until 1967, the area was under Jordanian rule, though Jordan did not officially relinquish its claim to the area until 1988. It was captured by Israel ^[1][2] during the Six-Day War. With the exception of East Jerusalem it was not annexed by Israel, although most of the West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation. Most of the residents are Palestinians, although large numbers of Israeli settlements have also been built in the region.

Origin of the name

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West Bank

The region did not have a separate existence until 1948–9, when it was defined by the Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan. The name "West Bank" was apparently first used by Jordanians at the time of their annexation of the region, and has become the most common name used in English and related languages. The term literally means 'the West bank of the river Jordan'; the Kingdom of Jordan being on the 'East bank' of this same river Jordan.

Judea and Samaria

Prior to this usage of the name "West Bank", the region was commonly referred to as Judea and Samaria, its long-standing name. For example, U.N. Resolution 181, the 1947 partition plan, explicitly refers to the central section of the Arab State as "the hill country of Samaria and Judea". For region boundaries set forth in the resolution see the text here.

Israelis refer to the region either as a unit: "The West Bank" (Hebrew: "ha-Gada ha-Ma'aravit" "הגדה המערבית"), or as two units: Judea (Hebrew: "Yehuda" "יהודה") and Samaria (Hebrew: "Shomron" "שומרון"), after the two biblical kingdoms (the southern Kingdom of Judah and the northern Kingdom of Israel — the capital of which was, for a time, in the town of Samaria). The border between Judea and Samaria is a belt of territory immediately north of (and historically traditionally including) Jerusalem sometimes called the "land of Benjamin". The name Judea and Samaria has been in continual use by Jews as well as various others since biblical times. This name carries an emotional meaning to many Jews as the cradle of Jewish Nation is derived from the time of King David in the region, the main religious sites and tombs are present there, and continuous Jewish communities were concentrated in the area throughout the years.

Cisjordan/Transjordan

The neo-Latin name Cisjordan or Cis-Jordan (literally "on this side of the [River] Jordan") is the usual name in the Romance languages and . The analogous Transjordan has historically been used to designate the region now comprising the state of Jordan which lies on the "other side" of the River Jordan. In English, the name Cisjordan is also occasionally used to designate the entire region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the historical context of the British Mandate and earlier times. The use of Cisjordan to refer to the smaller region discussed in this article is rare in English; the name West Bank is standard usage for this geo-political entity. For the low-lying area immediately west of the Jordan, the name Jordan Valley is used instead.

History

The territories now known as the West Bank were part of the Mandate of Palestine granted to Great Britain by the League of Nations after WWI. The current border of the West Bank was not a dividing line of any sort during the Mandate period, but rather the armistice line between the forces of the neighbouring kingdom of Jordan and those of Israel at the close of the 1948 Arab-Israel War. When the United Nations General Assembly partition Palestine into a Jewish State, an Arab State, and an internationally-administered enclave of Jerusalem, almost all of what became the West Bank was assigned to the Arab State. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950 but this annexation was recognized only by the United Kingdom (Pakistan is often, but apparently falsely,[1] assumed to have recognized it also).

During the 1950s, there was a significant influx of Palestinian refugees and violence together with Israeli reprisal raids across the Green Line.

In May of 1967 Egypt ordered out U.N. peacekeeping troops and re-militarized the Sinai peninsula, and blockaded the straits of Tiran. Fearing an Egyptian attack, the government of Levi Eshkol attempted to restrict any confrontation to Egypt alone. In particular it did whatever it could to avoid fighting Jordan, as it did not want to have to deal with the Palestinian population of the West Bank. However, "carried along by a powerful current of Arab nationalism", on May 30, 1967 King Hussein flew to Egypt and signed a mutual defense treaty in which the two countries agreed to consider "any armed attack on either state or its forces as an attack on both".^[2][3] Fearing an imminent Egyptian attack, on June 5, the Israel Defense Forces launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt^[4] which began what came to be known as the Six Day War. Jordan soon began shelling targets in west Jerusalem, Netanya, and the outskirts of Tel Aviv.^[5] Despite this, Israel sent a message promising not to initiate any action against Jordan if it stayed out of the war. Hussein replied that it was too late, "the die was cast".^[2] On the evening of June 5 the Israeli cabinet convened to decide what to do; Yigal Allon and Menahem Begin argued that this was an opportunity to take the Old City of Jerusalem, but Eshkol decided to defer any decision until Moshe Dayan and Yitzhak Rabin could be consulted.^[6] Uzi Narkis made a number of proposals for military action, including the capture of Latrun, but the cabinet turned him down. The Israeli military only commenced action after Government House was captured, which was seen as a threat to the security of Jerusalem.^[7] On June 6 Dayan encircled the city, but, fearing damage to holy places and having to fight in built-up areas, he ordered his troops not to go in. However, upon hearing that the U.N. was about to declare a ceasefire, he changed his mind, and without cabinet clearance, decided to take the city.^[8] After fierce fighting with Jordanian troops in and around the Jerusalem area, Israel captured the Old City on June 7.

No specific decision had been made to capture any other territories controlled by Jordan. After the Old City was captured, Dayan told his troops to dig in to hold it. When an armored brigade commander entered the West Bank on his own initiative, and stated that he could see Jericho, Dayan ordered him back. However, when intelligence reports indicated that Hussein had withdrawn his forces across the Jordan river, Dayan ordered his troops to capture the West Bank.^[9] Over the next two days, the IDF swiftly captured the rest of the West Bank and blew up the Abdullah and Hussien Bridges over the Jordan, thereby severing the West Bank from the East.^[10] According to Narkis:

First, the Israeli government had no intention of capturing the West Bank. On the contrary, it was opposed to it. Second, there was not any provocation on the part of the IDF. Third, the rein was only loosened when a real threat to Jerusalem's security emerged. This is truly how things happened on June 5, although it is difficult to believe. The end result was something that no one had planned.^[11]

The Arab League's Khartoum conference in September declared continuing belligerency and was seen as a rejection of negotiation.

In November, 1967, UN Security Council Resolution 242 was unanimously adopted, calling for "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles:" "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" (see semantic dispute) and: "Termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and respect for the right of every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognised boundaries. Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon entered into consultations with the UN Special representative over the implementation of 242.^[12]

In 1988, Jordan ceded its claims to the West Bank to the Palestine Liberation Organization, as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."[2][3]

Administration

The 1993 Oslo Accords declared the final status of the West Bank to be subject to a forthcoming settlement between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Following these interim accords, Israel withdrew its military rule from some parts of the West Bank, which was divided into three areas:

Area	Control	Administration	% of WB land	% of WB Palestinians
A	Palestinian	Palestinian	17%	55%
B	Israeli	Palestinian	24%	41%
C	Israeli	Israeli	59%	4%[13]

Area A comprises Palestinian towns, and some rural areas away from Israeli population centers in the north (between Jenin, Nablus, Tubas, and Tulkarm), the south (around Hebron), and one in the center south of Salfit. Area B adds other populated rural areas, many closer to the center of the West Bank. Area C contains all the Israeli settlements, roads used to access the settlements, buffer zones (near settlements, roads, strategic areas, and Israel), and almost all of the Jordan Valley and Judean Desert.

Areas A and B are themselves divided among 227 separate areas (199 of which are smaller than 2 square kilometres (1 sq mi)) that are separated from one another by Israeli-controlled Area C. ^[14] Areas A, B, and C cut across the 11 Governorates (districts) used as administrative divisions by the Palestinian Authority and named after major towns.

While the vast majority of the Palestinian population lives in areas A and B, the vacant land available for construction in dozens of villages and towns across the West Bank is situated on the margins of the communities and defined as area C. ^[15]

The Palestinian Authority has full civil control in area A, area B is characterized by joint-administration between the PA and Israel, while area C is under full Israeli control. Israel maintains overall control over Israeli settlements, roads, water, airspace, "external" security and borders for the entire territory

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the West Bank

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated that approximately 2.5 million Palestinians lived in the West Bank (including Israeli-administered East Jerusalem) at the end of 2006.^[16], though a recent study by the American-Israel Demographic Research Group disputes these figures (see #Recent Developments).

There are over 275,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, as well as around 200,000 Israeli Jews living in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem. There are also small ethnic groups, such as the Samaritans living in and around Nablus, numbering in the hundreds or low thousands. Interactions between the two societies have generally declined following the Palestinian Intifadas, though an economic relationship often exists between adjacent Israeli settlements and Palestinian villages.

As of October 2007, around 23,000 Palestinians in the West Bank work in Israel every day with another 9,200 working in Israeli settlements. In addition, around 10,000 Palestinian traders from the West Bank are allowed to travel every day into Israel.<.ref>Israel labour laws apply to Palestinian workers

Approximately 30% of Palestinians living in the West Bank are refugees or descendants of refugees from villages and towns located in what became Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (see Palestinian exodus).^[17][18][19]

Recent Developments

A 2005 study^[20] concluded that the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) had seriously overestimated the growth of the Palestinian population. According to the study, successive PCBS projections were extrapolated from flawed 1997 census data that counted residents living abroad, double counted residents of Jerusalem, and overestimated birth rates and net migration rate. The study placed the Arab population of the West Bank at only 1.41 Million, not including approximately 220,000 residents of East Jerusalem counted in Israel's census. Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, criticised the study's authors of misunderstanding basic principles of demography and of making multiple methodological errors that invalidated the results.^[21]

Significant population centers

Significant population centers

Center	Population
al-Bireh	40,000
Betar Illit	29,355
Bethlehem	30,000
Gush Etzion	40,000
Hebron	120,000
Jericho	25,000
East Jerusalem	400,000
Jenin	47,000
Ma'ale Adummim	33,259
Modi'in Illit	34,514
Nablus	135,000
Qalqilyah	40,000
Ramallah	60,000
Tulkarm	75,000
Yattah	42,000

The most densely populated part of the region is a mountainous spine, running north-south, where the cities of Nablus, Ariel, Abu Dis, Ramallah, al-Bireh, Ma'ale Adummim, Bethlehem, Beitar Illit, Gush Etzion, Hebron, Tubas and Yattah are located. Jenin, in the extreme north of the West Bank is on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley. Modi'in Illit, Qalqilyah and Tulkarm are in the low foothills adjacent to the Israeli Coastal Plain, and Jericho is situated in the Jordan Valley, north of the Dead Sea.

Transportation and communication

Roads

The West Bank has 4,500 km (2796 mi) of roads, of which 2,700 km (1678 mi) are paved.

In response to shootings by Palestinians, some highways, especially those leading to Israeli settlements, are completely inaccessible to cars with Palestinian license plates, while many other roads are restricted only to public transportation and to Palestinians who have special permits from Israeli authorities [4][5] [6]. Due to numerous shooting assaults targeting Israeli vehicles, the IDF bars Israelis from using most of the original roads in the West Bank. Israel's longstanding policy of separation-to-prevent-friction dictates the development of alternative highway systems for Israelis and Palestinian traffic.

Israel maintains more than 50 checkpoints in the West Bank [7]. As such, movement restrictions are also placed on main roads traditionally used by Palestinians to travel between cities, and such restrictions have been blamed for poverty and economic depression in the West Bank [8]. Since the beginning of 2005, there has been some amelioration of these restrictions. According to recent human rights reports, "Israel has made efforts to improve transport contiguity for Palestinians travelling in the West Bank. It has done this by constructing underpasses and bridges (28 of which have been constructed and 16 of which are planned) that link Palestinian areas separated from each other by Israeli settlements and bypass roads" [9] and by removal of checkpoints and physical obstacles, or by not reacting to Palestinian removal or natural erosion of other obstacles. "The impact (of these actions) is most felt by the easing of movement between villages and between villages and the urban centres" [10].

However, the obstacles encircling major Palestinian urban hubs, particularly Nablus and Hebron, have remained. In addition, the IDF prohibits Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian-controlled land (Area A).

As of August 2007, a divided highway is currently under construction that will pass through the West Bank. The highway has a concrete wall dividing the two sides, one designated for Israeli vehicles, the other for Palestinian. The wall is designed to allow Palestinians to freely pass north-south through Israeli-held land. ^[22]

Airports

The West Bank has three paved airports which are currently for military use only. The only civilian airport of Atarot Airport in northern Jerusalem, which was open only to Israeli citizens, was closed in 2001 due to the Intifada. Palestinians were previously able to use Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport with permission; however, Israel has discontinued issuing such permits, and Palestinians wishing to travel must cross the land border to either Jordan or Egypt in order to use airports located in these countries [11].

Telecom

The Israeli Bezeq and Palestinian PalTel telecommunication companies provide communication services in the West Bank.

Radio and television

The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts from an AM station in Ramallah on 675 kHz; numerous local privately owned stations are also in operation. Most Palestinian households have a radio and TV, and satellite dishes for receiving international coverage are widespread. Recently, PalTel announced and has begun implementing an initiative to provide ADSL broadband internet service to all households and businesses.

Israel's cable television company 'HOT', satellite television provider (DBS) 'Yes', AM & FM radio broadcast stations and public television broadcast stations all operate. Broadband internet service by Bezeq's ADSL and by the cable company are available as well.

Higher education

Before 1967 there were no universities in the West Bank (except for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem - see below). There were a few lesser institutions of higher education; for example, An-Najah, which started as an elementary school in 1918 and became a community college in 1963. As the Jordanian government did not allow the establishment of such universities in the West Bank, Palestinians could obtain degrees only by travelling abroad to places such as Jordan, Lebanon, or Europe.

After the region was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, several educational institutions began offering undergraduate courses, while others opened up as entirely new universities. In total, seven Universities have been commissioned in the West Bank since 1967:

• Bethlehem University, a Roman Catholic institution partially funded by the Vatican, opened its doors in 1973 http://www.bethlehem.edu/about/history.shtml.
• In 1975, Birzeit College (located in the town of Bir Zeit north of Ramallah) became Birzeit University after adding third- and fourth-year college-level programs http://www.birzeit.edu/p/ps?url=about/history2&id=50208.
• An-Najah College in Nablus likewise became An-Najah National University in 1977 http://www.najah.edu/.
• The Hebron University was established in 1980 http://www.hebron.edu
• Al-Quds University, whose founders had yearned to establish a university in Jerusalem since the early days of Jordanian rule, finally realized their goal in 1995 http://www.alquds.edu/gen_info/index.php?page=overview.
• Also in 1995, after the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Arab American University—the only private university in the West Bank—was founded in Jenin, with the purpose of providing courses according to the American system of education http://www.aauj.edu/overview/um/um.htm.
• In 2005, the Israeli government recommended to upgrade the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel to become a full fledged university http://www.yosh.ac.il/About.asp. This move to create a university within an Israeli settlement has angered some Palestinians, although no official response was made by the Palestinian authority.
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, established in 1918, is one of Israel's oldest, largest, and most important institutes of higher learning and research. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the leader of the Palestinian forces in Jerusalem, Abdul Kader Husseini, threatened that the Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University would be captured or destroyed "if the Jews continued to use them as bases for attacks".^[23] Medical convoys between the Yishuv-controlled section of Jerusalem and Mount Scopus were attacked since December 1947.^[24] After the Hadassah medical convoy massacre in 1948, which also included university staff, the Mount Scopus campus was cut off from the Jewish part of Jerusalem. After the War, the University was forced to relocate to a new campus in Givat Ram in western Jerusalem. After Israel captured East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of June 1967, the University returned to its original campus in Mount Scopus.

Most universities in the West Bank have politically active student bodies, and elections of student council officers are normally along party affiliations. Although the establishment of the universities was initially allowed by the Israeli authorities, some were sporadically ordered closed by the Israeli Civil Administration during the 1970s and 1980s to prevent political activities and violence against the IDF. Some universities remained closed by military order for extended periods during years immediately preceding and following the first Palestinian Intifada, but have largely remained open since the signing of the Oslo Accords despite the advent of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.

The founding of Palestinian universities has greatly increased education levels among the population in the West Bank. According to a Birzeit University study, the percentage of Palestinians choosing local universities as opposed to foreign institutions has been steadily increasing; as of 1997, 41% of Palestinians with bachelor degrees had obtained them from Palestinian institutions [12]. According to UNESCO, Palestinians are one of the most highly educated groups in the Middle East "despite often difficult circumstances" [13]. The literacy rate among Palestinians in the West Bank (and Gaza) (89%) is third highest in the region after Israel (95%) and Jordan (90%) [14][https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/Is.html] [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/we.html].

Status

Legal status

The West Bank is currently considered under international law to be de jure, a territory not part of any state. The United Nations Security Council,^[25] the United Nations General Assembly,^[26] the International Court of Justice,^[27] and the International Committee of the Red Cross^[28] refer to it as occupied by Israel.

According to Alan Dowty, legally the status of the West Bank falls under the international law of belligerent occupation, as distinguished from nonbelligerent occupation that follows an armistice. This assumes the possibility of renewed fighting, and affords the occupier "broad leeway". The West Bank has a unique status in two respects; first, there is no precedent for a belligerent occupation lasting for more than a brief period, and second, that the West Bank was not part of a sovereign country before occupation — thus, in legal terms, there is no "reversioner" for the West Bank. This means that sovereignty of the West Bank is currently suspended, and, according to some, Israel, as the only successor state to the Palestine Mandate, has a status that "goes beyond that of military occupier alone."^[29]

Political positions

The future status of the West Bank, together with the Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean shore, has been the subject of negotiation between the Palestinians and Israelis, although the current Road Map for Peace, proposed by the "Quartet" comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, envisions an independent Palestinian state in these territories living side by side with Israel (see also proposals for a Palestinian state).

The Palestinian people believe that the West Bank ought to be a part of their sovereign nation, and that the presence of Israeli military control is a violation of their right to self-determination. The United Nations calls the West Bank and Gaza Strip Israeli-occupied (see Israeli-occupied territories). The United States also refers to the territories as occupied.^[30][31][32] Many Israelis and their supporters prefer the term disputed territories, claiming it comes closer to a neutral point of view; this viewpoint is not accepted by most other countries, which consider "occupied" to be the neutral description of status.

Israel argues that its presence is justified because:

1. Israel's eastern border has never been defined by anyone;
2. The disputed territories have not been part of any state (Jordanian annexation was never officially recognized) since the time of the Ottoman Empire;
3. According to the Camp David Accords (1978) with Egypt, the 1994 agreement with Jordan and the Oslo Accords with the PLO, the final status of the territories would be fixed only when there was a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Palestinian public opinion is almost unanimous in opposing Israeli military and settler presence on the West Bank as a violation of their right to statehood and sovereignty.^[33] Israeli opinion is split into a number of views:

• Complete or partial withdrawal from the West Bank in hopes of peaceful coexistence in separate states (sometimes called the "land for peace" position); (According to a 2003 poll 76% of Israelis support a peace agreement based on that principle).^[34]
• Maintenance of a military presence in the West Bank to reduce Palestinian terrorism by deterrence or by armed intervention, while relinquishing some degree of political control;
• Annexation of the West Bank while considering the Palestinian population as (for instance) citizens of Jordan with Israeli residence permit as per the Elon Peace Plan;
• Annexation of the West Bank and assimilation of the Palestinian population to fully fledged Israeli citizens;
• Transfer of the East Jerusalem Palestinian population (a 2002 poll at the height of the Al Aqsa intifada found 46% of Israelis favoring Palestinian transfer of Jerusalem residents;^[35] in 2005 two polls using a different methodology put the number at approximately 30%).^[36]

Annexation

Israel annexed the territory of East Jerusalem, and its Palestinian residents (if they should decline Israeli citizenship) have legal permanent residency status.^[37][38] Although permanent residents are permitted, if they wish, to receive Israeli citizenship if they meet certain conditions including swearing allegiance to the State and renouncing any other citizenship, most Palestinians did not apply for Israeli citizenship for political reasons.^[39] There are various possible reasons as to why the West Bank had not been annexed to Israel after its capture in 1967. The government of Israel has not formally confirmed an official reason, however, historians and analysts have established a variety of such, most of them demographic. Among the most agreed upon:

• Reluctance to award its citizenship to an overwhelming number of a potentially hostile population whose allies were sworn to the destruction of Israel ^[40][41][42]
• Fear that the population of non-Zionist Arabs would outnumber the Israelis, appeal to different political interests, and vote Israel out of existence; thus failing to maintain the concept and safety of a Jewish state ^[43][44]
• To ultimately exchange land for peace with neighbouring states^[40][41]

Settlements and International Law

Main article: Israeli settlement#Legal status of the settlements

Israeli settlements on the West Bank beyond the Green Line border are considered by some legal scholars to be illegal under international law.^{[45][46][47][48]} Other legal scholars^[49] including Julius Stone,^[50] have argued that the settlements are legal under international law, on a number of different grounds. The Independent reported in March 2006 that immediately after the 1967 war Theodor Meron, legal counsel of Israel's Foreign Ministry advised Israeli ministers in a "top secret" memo that any policy of building settlements across occupied territories violated international law and would "contravene the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention".^[51][52] A contrasting opinion was held by Eugene Rostow, a former Dean of the Yale Law School and undersecretary of state for political affairs in the administration of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, who wrote in 1991 that Israel has a right to have settlements in the West Bank under 1967's UN Security Council Resolution 242.^[53] It is the policy of both Israel and the United States that the settlements do not violate international law, although the United States considers ongoing settlement activity to be "unhelpful" to the peace process. The European Union^[54] and the Arab League^[55] consider the settlements to be illegal. Israel also recognizes that some small settlements are "illegal" in the sense of being in violation of Israeli law.^[56][57]

In 2005 the United States ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer, expressed U.S. support "for the retention by Israel of major Israeli population centres [in the West Bank] as an outcome of negotiations",^[58] reflecting President Bush's statement a year earlier that a permanent peace treaty would have to reflect "demographic realities" on the West Bank.^[59]

The UN Security Council has issued several non-binding resolutions addressing the issue of the settlements. Typical of these is UN Security Council resolution 446 which states [the] practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity, and it calls on Israel as the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.^[60]

The Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention held in Geneva on 5 December, 2001 called upon "the Occupying Power to fully and effectively respect the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to refrain from perpetrating any violation of the Convention." The High Contracting Parties reaffirmed "the illegality of the settlements in the said territories and of the extension thereof."^[61]

West Bank barrier

Main article: Israeli West Bank barrier

The Israeli West Bank barrier is a physical barrier being constructed by Israel consisting of a network of fences with vehicle-barrier trenches surrounded by an on average 60 m (197 ft) wide exclusion area (90%) and up to 8 metres (26 ft) high concrete walls (10%).^[62] It is located mainly within the West Bank, partly along the 1949 Armistice line, or "Green Line" between the West Bank and Israel. As of April 2006 the length of the barrier as approved by the Israeli government is 703 kilometers (436 miles) long. Approximately 58.4% has been constructed, 8.96% is under construction, and construction has not yet begun on 33% of the barrier.^[63] The space between the barrier and the green line is a closed military zone known as the Seam Zone, cutting off 8.5% of the West Bank and encompassing tens of villages and tens of thousands of Palestinians.^[64].^[65]

The barrier is a very controversial project. Supporters claim the barrier is a necessary tool protecting Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism, including suicide bombing attacks, that increased significantly during the al-Aqsa Intifada;^[66][67] it has helped reduce incidents of terrorism by 90% from 2002 to 2005;^[68] its supporters claim that the onus is now on the Palestinian Authority to fight terrorism.^[69]

Opponents claim the barrier is an illegal attempt to annex Palestinian land under the guise of security,^[70] violates international law,^[71] has the intent or effect to pre-empt final status negotiations,^[72] and severely restricts Palestinians who live nearby, particularly their ability to travel freely within the West Bank and to access work in Israel, thereby undermining their economy.^[73] According to a 2007 World Bank report, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank has destroyed the Palestinian economy, in violation of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access. All major roads (with a total length of 700 km) are basically off-limits to Palestinians, making it impossible to do normal business. Economic recovery would reduce Palestinian dependence on international aid by one billion dollars per year. ^[74]

Pro-settler opponents claim that the barrier is a sly attempt to artificially create a border that excludes the settlers, creating "facts on the ground" that justify the mass dismantlement of hundreds of settlements and displacement of over 100,000 Jews from the land they claim as their biblical homeland.^[75]

Notes

References

• Albin, Cecilia (2001). Justice and Fairness in International Negotiation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-79725-X
• Bamberger, David (1985, 1994). A Young Person's History of Israel. Behrman House. ISBN 0-87441-393-1
• Dowty, Alan (2001). The Jewish State: A Century Later. University of California Press. ISBN 0520229118
• Oren, Michael (2002). Six Days of War, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195151747
• Gibney, Mark and Frankowski, Stanislaw (1999). Judicial Protection of Human Rights. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-96011-0
• Playfair, Emma (Ed.) (1992). International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-825297-8
• Shlaim, Avi (2000). The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393048160
• Howell, Mark (2007). What Did We Do to Deserve This? Palestinian Life under Occupation in the West Bank, Garnet Publishing. ISBN 1859641954

See also

• Economy of the West Bank
• Geography of the West Bank
• Israeli West Bank barrier
• West Bank Closures
• Palestinian exodus
• Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan
• Palestine
• Israeli Settlements
• Israel

External links

• [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html West Bank] from the CIA World Factbook
• Palestine Facts & Info from Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs
• The Legal Status of Palestine Under International Law (Supports Palestinian claims), a publication by Birzeit University.
• United Nations - Question of Palestine
• Disputed Territories: Forgotten Facts about the West Bank and Gaza Strip - from the Israeli government
• The Westbank Dispute Analysis from ProCon
• Large map of West Bank (1992)
• MOVING UP: An Aliyah Journal, the new book, is an upbeat account about Aliyah and life in Israel.
• A series of geopolitical maps of the West Bank
• "American Thinker" opinion article which disputes some of the data in this article
• 1988 "Address to the Nation" by King Hussein of Jordan Ceding Jordanian Claims to the West Bank to the PLO
• Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association - establishing links between the North London Borough of Camden and the town of Abu Dis in the West Bank

Coordinates:

•  • [ e] Cities and towns in the West Bank
Ariel • Beit Jala • Beit Sahour • Betar Illit • Bethlehem • al-Bireh • Halhul • Hebron • Jenin • Jericho • Ma'ale Adummim • Nablus • Qalqilyah • Ramallah • Tulkarm • Yatta

East West Bank (Philippines) Israeli settlement Israeli West Bank barrier Israeli-occupied territories Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Palestinian state Palestinian territories Political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan