West Bank
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
West Bank or Cisjordan is the name of a region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, including the northwest quadrant of the Dead Sea. It is the Western part of the former British Mandate of Palestine (the Eastern part which is now the state of Jordan was called Transjordan). Nowadays the term West Bank is mostly used to refer only to the part of Cisjordan which does not belong to the territory of the state of Israel. The boundaries between the state of Israel and the West Bank (in the following with the meaning of the last sentence) are not clearly defined yet and are the result of the 1949 Armistice Agreement which followed the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was annexed by Jordan from 1949 to 1967. Israel gained control of the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War. The West Bank is considered as occupied by Israel, though Israel prefers the term "control" to "occupation" (see occupied Palestinian territories). Israel argues that it cannot be an occupation because this land does not belong to any state or nation and was never in its history an independent entity. The West Bank is inhabited by Arabs, Jews, and other ethnic groups (see Palestinians).
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2 Status 3 Transport and Communication 4 External links |
The most densely populated part of the region is a mountainous spine, running north-south, where the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron are located. Jenin, in the extreme north of the West Bank is on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley, Qalqilya and Tulkarm are in the low foothills adjacent to the Israeli coastal plain, and Jericho is situated near the Jordan River, just north of the Dead Sea.
Maale Adumim (about 6 km east of Jerusalem) and Ariel (between Nablus and Ramallah) are the largest Jewish towns in the region.
needs to be written, see also Wikipedia:NPOV dispute
Israelis refer to the region either as a unit -- "The West Bank" ("ha-Gada ha-Ma'aravit") -- or as two units -- Judea ("Yehuda") and Samaria ("Shomron"), 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 Sumaria is a belt of territory immediately north of Jerusalem) sometimes called the "land of Benjamin".
The Arab world and especially the Palestinians strongly object to the terms Judea and Samaria, the use of which they deem to reflect Israeli expansionist aims. Instead, they refer to the area as "the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River", emphasizing that the area is under Israeli military control and jurisdiction (see "occupied Palestinian territories").
The West Bank has been the object of negotiation, terrorism and war.
The status of the West Bank, together with the Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean shore, has long been disputed, though almost everyone agrees that the area is heading for statehood (see proposals for a Palestinian state).
Current situation:
The United Nations call the West Bank and Gaza Strip Israeli-occupied (see Occupied territories for discussion of what "occupied" means). The US generally agrees with this formulation, although the term disputed territories comes closer to a neutral point of view.
Generally, the Arab World considers the West Bank the rightful property of its Palestinian residents and regards the Israeli presence as an occupation force. Supporters of this view commonly refer to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as the "occupied territories". The vast majority of Palestinians also feel that the West Bank ought to be a part of their sovereign nation, and that the presence of Israeli military forces is a violation of that sovereignty (see Palestinian Authority).
Many official Arab maps show the West Bank, Gaza, and the rest of the territory bounded by Egypt, the Jordan River, Syria, Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea as "Palestine", reflecting a non-recognition of Israel as a state. However, Saudi Arabia recently offered a total recognition of Israel by the Arab world if Israel completely withdraws from the West Bank and Gaza. Considering the hostility from the Arab world against Israel, that offer was not seen as a serious one but rather as a stratagem.
This is much too oversimplified.
Israeli opinion is split into those who advocate, variously:
A part of the pre-1948 Mandatory Palestine, the territories now known as West Bank were mostly part of the territory reserved by the 1947 Partition Plan (UN General Assembly Resolution 181) for an Arab state. According to the plan, the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding towns (including Bethlehem and Ramallah) would be an internationally adminsitered territory, whose future would be determined at a later date. While a Palestinian Arab state failed to materialize, the territory was captured by the neighboring kingdom of Jordan. This occupation was not recognized by the UN or by the international community.
The boundary line between Israel proper and the West Bank was determined by the cease-fire talks in 1949 and is often called the "Green Line". During the 1950s, there was a signiciant phenomenon of Palestinian refugee infiltration and terrorismthrough the Green Line. In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured this territory, but the U.N. did not recognize it either and asked for Israel's withdrawal in Resolution 242. In 1988, Jordan withdrew all claims to it.
The 1993 Oslo accords declared the final status of the West Bank to be a subject to a forthcoming settlement between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Following the accords, Israel withdrew its military rule from some parts of West Bank, which was then split into:
Israel has been criticized for reconstruction of numerous settlements in the West Bank. It is alleged that it breaks international law by doing so. See Israeli settlements for a discussion of this question.
The West Bank has 4,500 km of roads, of which 2,700 km are paved. The Israelis have developed many highways to service their settlements. It also has three paved airports. There are no railways.
The Israeli company Bezeq and the Palestinian company PALTEL are responsible for communication services in the West Bank. The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts from an AM station in Ramallah on 675 kHz; numerous local, private stations are reported to be in operation. Most Palestinian households have a radio, and many have a TV, but there are no figures available.
Cities in the West Bank
Origin of Name
Political terminology
Status
1. Israel's eastern border was never defined by anyone.
2. The disputed territories were not part of any state (except Jordan) since the
Ottoman Empire days.
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 during the permanent
agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.History
Main article: History of the West Bank and Gaza Strip or History of Israel
Areas B and C constitute the majority of the territory, made up out of the rural areas, while urban areas per se are mostly Area A.Transport and Communication
