I.

Introduction

West Bank, territory in southwestern Asia, bounded on the north, west, and south by Israel, and on the east by Jordan. It is located on the western bank of the Jordan River in the northeast, and on a portion of the Dead Sea in the southeast. The West Bank covers about 5,860 sq km (2,263 sq mi). Once part of Palestine, the West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1950, then occupied by Israel in 1967. Israel continues to maintain control over the West Bank, which today is populated by a large Palestinian majority and Israeli minority. After Israel and the Palestinians reached a number of agreements between 1993 and 1998, almost all Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were transferred to Palestinian administration under the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

Following a Palestinian intifada (uprising) that began in 2000, however, Israeli forces resumed control of a number of West Bank cities. In 2002 Israel also began construction of a barrier, or separation, wall to protect Israeli settlements, which continued to encroach on West Bank territory. Israel also constructed highways that were accessible only to Israeli settlers and imposed numerous military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, as Palestinians charged that Israel was attempting to carve the West Bank into areas resembling the bantustans that existed in South Africa during the apartheid era.

II.

Land and Resources

Limited rainfall and poor soil quality restrict human activity in the West Bank. Agriculture and human settlement are concentrated along a hilly spine that runs from north to south and on the western slopes leading to the Mediterranean coastal plain. Vegetables and other field crops are grown in the northern valleys, and olives are cultivated in the hill areas.

The hill areas of the West Bank have a Mediterranean climate, with cool, wet winters and mild summers. Rainfall occurs mostly at high elevations in the northwest, and is of critical importance for Palestinians and Israelis as it replenishes groundwater supplies in Israel and the West Bank. Rain levels decrease from north to south and from west to east, and the eastern third of the territory is arid and desiccated, with warm winters and hot summers. Settlement and economic activity are sparse in this area, and with the exception of the oases and spring-fed farms in the Jordan Valley, the eastern West Bank is used primarily for livestock grazing. The Jordan River links the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias) and the Dead Sea, but provides little water for irrigation. The region’s mineral resources consist mainly of salt and potash found in the Dead Sea.

III.

Population

The population of the West Bank has fluctuated considerably over the past 50 years, largely as a result of migration and high birth rates. From a population of approximately 400,000 in 1947, the number of West Bank residents had nearly doubled by 1967, due to an influx of Palestinian refugees forced from the newly created state of Israel in 1948. After Israel occupied the West Bank in the Six-Day War of 1967, the number of inhabitants dropped again, reflecting the flight of Palestinian refugees to Jordan. In 2009 the estimated population of the West Bank was 1,495,681. Population density was 255 persons per sq km (661 per sq mi). Palestinians claim the eastern portion of Jerusalem as their capital and largest city, although Israel does not consider it to be part of the West Bank. Other important cities and towns include Hebron, Nābulus, Janīn, Rām Allāh, Bethlehem, Ţūlkarm, Bayt Sāḩor, Jericho, and Bayt Jālā.

The West Bank is inhabited mainly by Palestinian Arabs, who numbered approximately 1,443,790 in 1994. Most Palestinians are Sunni Muslims (see Sunni Islam). Christian Arabs, who comprise less than 10 percent of the Palestinian population and belong chiefly to the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, are concentrated in towns around Jerusalem. Arabic is the dominant language of Palestinians, and English and Hebrew are also frequently spoken and understood. Approximately 10 percent of West Bank Palestinians are housed in a number of crowded refugee camps administered by the United Nations (UN).

Since Israeli occupation of the West Bank began in 1967, Palestinians have lived in uneasy coexistence with a growing number of Israeli settlers. Israelis in the West Bank practice Judaism, and speak Hebrew as a primary language. The Israeli settler population grew from about 190,000 in 2000 to about 250,000 in 2005. In January 2008 the Israeli Interior Ministry estimated the Jewish settler population at about 282,000. There are 122 official Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In addition Jewish settlers have established about 100 unauthorized settlements.

Roughly half of Palestinian West Bank residents are currently under the age of 15. The growth of the school-age population has put pressure on Palestinian schools to improve and expand, especially in the wake of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising (1987-1993), during which time school closures and disruptions were frequent. From 1967 to 1994 public education for Palestinians in the West Bank was based on the Jordanian curriculum and graduation examinations, and was overseen by the Israeli government. In May 1994, following the September 1993 accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a new ruling body, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), was allowed to administer the West Bank town of Jericho and most of the Gaza Strip, including their schools. In August 1994, just before the beginning of the school year, the PNA assumed responsibility for public education for Palestinians throughout the West Bank. Planning began soon afterward to develop a unified Palestinian curriculum for schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Christian organizations operate private schools in a number of towns, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) administers schools in the refugee camps of the West Bank. Israeli children in the West Bank are educated in local Israeli-run schools.

Since the 1960s a number of Palestinian institutions of higher learning have opened in the West Bank; foremost among them are the universities of Bi‘r Zayt, Bethlehem, and An-Najah; the Islamic College in Hebron; and the Technical College in Abū Dīs. All Palestinian universities were closed for a time during the first intifada that began in 1987, but they reopened in 1991.

Health care is often inadequate and difficult to obtain in the West Bank. Al-Mokkassed, the primary hospital for the region, is located in Jerusalem, which also contains a hospital for refugees. Most of the other medical facilities in the West Bank are small and poorly equipped.

The West Bank is of great symbolic importance to the world’s three major monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and its cities and towns are filled with historic and religious sites. The town of Hebron is best known for the Cave of the Patriarchs, where several biblical patriarchs, including Abraham, are believed to be buried. Bethlehem contains the Church of the Nativity, known as the site where Jesus Christ was born; and Rachel’s Tomb, revered by both Muslims and Jews. Sites in the town of Jericho include the palace of the Muslim ruler Hisham, and the Mount of Temptation (Qaranţal, Dayr al), where it is believed that Christ was tempted by the Devil.

IV.

Economy

The economy of the West Bank changed profoundly after Israel occupied the region in 1967. From a predominantly agrarian economy, the West Bank grew increasingly dependent on service-sector jobs generated by Israel’s more robust economy. Wage labor drew Palestinians into a range of employment in Israel, primarily as menial workers. Over time, Palestinians came to dominate the Israeli construction industry, providing labor for building in Israel as well as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

After the first intifada began in 1987, access to jobs in Israel became difficult to obtain due to frequent political strikes by Palestinians and curfews imposed by Israel. In need of income, many Palestinian laborers returned to agriculture, rehabilitating and expanding farmland in some areas of the West Bank. This agricultural renaissance was not sustained, however, and disruptions in the job market persisted. Punitive measures by the Israeli government, which included closing the country to Palestinians and employing immigrants from foreign countries to replace Palestinian workers, resulted in collective economic losses and significant individual hardship for West Bank Palestinians. The creation of the separation wall beginning in 2002 also isolated some Palestinian farmers from their land, making it more difficult for them to farm it.

Economic difficulties that followed the intifada were compounded for a while by the decline in income from Palestinian workers in the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf. Remittances earned by Palestinians in those countries constituted an important source of foreign currency for the West Bank in the years preceding Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the resulting Persian Gulf War of 1991. In the aftermath of the war, many Palestinian workers lost their jobs or were expelled from the area in retaliation for Palestinian support for Iraq.

Today the West Bank has a modest economy; agriculture is the primary economic activity of the region. Chief products include citrus and other fruits, olives, and cereals; sheep and goats are the principal livestock. Due to a low level of investment capital, the West Bank supports only a few small industries, which include food processing, textiles, and cement manufacturing. Both the Israeli new sheqel and the Jordanian dinar are circulating currency in the West Bank. Under Israeli occupation, banking services were provided by Israeli commercial banks. Since the beginning of Palestinian administration in 1994, a number of Arab banks have also entered the market. The eruption of a second intifada in 2000 disrupted an already weak West Bank economy, resulting in high unemployment and widespread poverty.

The road system in the West Bank is well developed, and buses and private taxis are the primary means of mass transit. However, a number of roads built by the Israeli government are for the use only of Israeli settlers. Israel constructed bypass roads to connect settlements with each other, but these roads have often encroached on Palestinian land and have had the effect of isolating Palestinian communities from each other. A number of roads also are subject to closures, meaning that Palestinians must go through Israeli checkpoints before they can reach needed services, such as hospitals and clinics. The highways for Israeli settlers are modern and well-maintained whereas some Palestinian roads have fallen into disrepair. The region has no railroads. Although most radio and television broadcasts are received from Israel and Jordan, a small broadcasting industry is developing in the West Bank. A number of Arabic newspapers are published daily in Jerusalem.

V.

Government

The West Bank is currently under an interim system of government that was scheduled to end in May 1999, five years after Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho. At that time, negotiations on the region’s final status were due for completion. However, delays in the peace process have postponed indefinitely the final-status negotiations. Israeli withdrawals from 1995 to 1997 gave the Palestinians civil control of most Palestinian population centers, which accounted for 27 percent of the West Bank’s land area. Additional Israeli withdrawals outlined in a 1998 accord were to have transferred another 13 percent of the West Bank to Palestinian administration. Israel proceeded with the first withdrawal, relinquishing 2 percent of the West Bank. However, in December 1998 Israel froze the implementation of the accord.

The governing body, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), consists of a president and the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council elected by Palestinian voters in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Yasir Arafat, chairman of the PLO, was elected the PNA’s first president in January 1996. The council, also elected in January 1996, met for the first time in March 1996 in the city of Gaza, which was then the PNA’s headquarters. Holding both legislative and executive powers, the council can levy most taxes; regulate business; provide education, health care, and social services; issue travel documents; and negotiate some international agreements. The Palestinian National Authority also maintains an armed police force that is responsible for security in the cities and works in conjunction with Israeli forces for security in towns and villages. Palestinians in the West Bank are not considered Israeli citizens but do hold Jordanian citizenship if they lived in the West Bank before the Palestinian National Authority came to power.

Israel maintains control of foreign affairs; movement between Palestinian enclaves; and armed forces, which the Palestinian National Authority cannot establish. Israel also administers Jewish settlements. Israelis in the West Bank are subject to Israeli law and authority, just as if they were residents of Israel. Under the Israeli-Palestinian agreements, Israel was to withdraw from Palestinian rural areas, but this process has been delayed. About 70 percent of the West Bank’s land area remains under exclusive Israeli control. Israel has also conducted periodic military incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas to carry out arrests or destroy sources of anti-Israeli violence.

VI.

History

There is a long history of human settlement in the area of the West Bank. Excavations in the area of Jericho indicate that it may be the oldest city on Earth, with remains dating back to 8000 bc.

During ancient times, the area that became the West Bank experienced a long succession of conquest by tribal and foreign powers. In the 13th century bc Israelites settled there (see Israel, Kingdom of). The region later changed hands among Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Roman rulers, and in the 7th century ad, the West Bank was captured by Arab Muslim armies. After that time the area was ruled almost continuously by a series of Muslim empires, culminating in its inclusion in the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century.

The Ottomans were defeated during World War I (1914-1918) and driven from the area by the British; in 1920 the West Bank became part of the British mandate of Palestine. After this time, the number of European Jewish immigrants in Palestine grew considerably but became concentrated in areas outside of the West Bank. Meanwhile, the Arab population in the West Bank increased, and towns and villages expanded accordingly.

In 1947 the United Nations (UN) voted to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with the West Bank included in the Arab territory. The plan was rejected by the Palestinian Arabs; their allies attacked Israel on May 15, 1948, immediately following Israel’s declaration of independence. During the war, which became known as the first Arab-Israeli War (see Arab-Israeli Conflict), Jordan occupied the West Bank and the eastern portion of Jerusalem. An armistice agreement signed by Jordan and Israel in 1949 determined the boundary of the West Bank, known thereafter as the Green Line. Many Arab refugees from the fighting in Israel entered the West Bank and Jordan, some settling in refugee camps administered by the UN, others finding permanent homes. In 1950 Jordan formally annexed the West Bank; the move was recognized only by the United Kingdom and Pakistan. For the next 17 years the West Bank was governed as part of Jordan, and Palestinians were granted full citizenship. Relations between Jordanians and West Bank Palestinians, however, remained strained.

In 1967 fighting broke out between Israel and the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in what came to be called the Six-Day War. The combined Arab armies were quickly defeated. Israel took control of the Golan Heights (from Syria); the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip (from Egypt); and the West Bank (from Jordan). Soon after the war, the West Bank came under Israeli military administration, and eastern Jerusalem was incorporated into Israel proper.

The Occupied, or Administered, Territories were secured by the Israeli government via the settlement of Israeli citizens in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Despite some improvement in living conditions, West Bank Palestinians strongly opposed Israel’s presence in the region. Conflicts intensified during the late 1970s, as Israelis appropriated Palestinian-owned land for new settlements. In the early 1980s Palestinian resistance efforts became increasingly aggressive, spearheaded by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Rioting and unrest developed into the intifada, which began in the Gaza Strip in December 1987 and soon spread to the West Bank.

In 1988 Jordan ceded to the PLO all territorial claims to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Violent clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli army in the West Bank continued throughout the 1980s and early 1990s with many deaths on both sides. The clashes were sometimes accompanied by peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience. Reprisals by the Israeli government resulted in significant property damage, a high rate of unemployment, and a general decline in living standards for Palestinians.

In 1991 a peace conference was convened between Israel, its Arab neighbors, and a Palestinian delegation advised by the PLO. The negotiations, which focused on the issue of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, were the first direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The talks continued into 1992, and in September 1993 Israel and the PLO signed a historic accord. Among its provisions, the accord called for a five-year period of limited Palestinian autonomy, beginning in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

Despite violent opposition to the accord by Palestinian and Israeli extremists, Jericho and the Gaza Strip came under self-rule in May 1994. The remaining Palestinian cities, towns, and refugee camps in the West Bank, with the exception of Hebron, were transferred to Palestinian administration in late 1995 and early 1996. In Hebron, where several hundred Israeli settlers live among thousands of Palestinians, Israel maintained a military force to protect the settlers, but Palestinians were given civil administration of the city. In January 1996, elections were held for the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which is made up of a president and a legislative council who administer the Palestinian areas of the Occupied Territories. PLO leader Yasir Arafat was elected president of the PNA.

In May 1996 Israelis narrowly elected Benjamin Netanyahu of the conservative Likud Party as prime minister. Netanyahu was opposed to several parts of the peace process negotiated by the previous Labor government; his promise to reexamine the agreements angered many Palestinians but won him the support of many Israelis. For the next several months, tensions ran high in the West Bank, with sporadic violence between Palestinians and Israelis. In September, when Israel opened an exit to a tourist tunnel near Muslim shrines in Jerusalem, three days of fighting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip followed. More than 70 Palestinians and Israelis died. Nonetheless, in January 1997 Israel withdrew its troops from Hebron, as promised under the accord. In March violence again broke out in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as Israel began construction of a controversial housing project for Jews in mostly Arab East Jerusalem. The project was criticized by many other countries, including Israel’s close ally the United States.

The construction project and continued terrorist activities, which Netanyahu felt the Palestinian National Authority was not doing enough to prevent, stalled further peace negotiations until mid-1998. In October, with the help of United States president Bill Clinton, Netanyahu and Arafat signed an accord by which Israel would withdraw from an additional 13 percent of the West Bank. In return, the Palestinians agreed to remove calls for Israel’s destruction from their national charter and to improve security measures against terrorist attacks on Israel. After completing the first of three scheduled withdrawals, Israel froze the implementation of the accord in December 1998, citing Palestinian violations and placing new conditions on further withdrawals.

Subsequent negotiations in 1999 and 2000 between Yasir Arafat and newly elected Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak failed to produce a new agreement. This failure, coupled with ongoing Israeli expansion of West Bank settlements and continued Palestinian attacks on Israelis, led to a deterioration of the political situation. In late 2000 a renewed Palestinian uprising, known as the Al Aqsa intifada, reversed the progress that had been made between Israel and the Palestinians, and returned the two sides to the open hostility that has marked much of their history. In the subsequent period, which was marked by chronic military conflict, Israel and the Palestinians suspended negotiations, and efforts by other countries to restart the peace process failed. In response to mounting Israeli death tolls from Palestinian suicide bombings, in the spring of 2002 Israeli forces swept into the West Bank and occupied key urban centers. During the three-week military operation, which was vehemently denounced by Palestinian leaders, Israeli forces arrested hundreds of alleged terrorists and seized or destroyed large quantities of weapons.

Arafat died in 2004 and was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas. In February 2005 Israel and the PNA reached an agreement for Israeli forces to withdraw from the West Bank towns of Jericho and Tūlkarm. Following the withdrawal in March 2005, 13 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, agreed to an informal cease-fire with Israel. In August 2005 Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces and settlements from the Gaza Strip after Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon secured the approval of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. Sharon later suffered a stroke and was succeeded by the center-right government of Ehud Olmert.

At the beginning of 2006, Hamas swept the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council and named Ismail Haniyeh as the PNA’s prime minister. Fatah’s Abbas continued to lead the PNA as president, though relations between the two organizations began to grow increasingly tense. Both the United States and the European Union (EU) cut off aid for the PNA, and Israel withheld tax and customs receipts that it collected for the PNA, demanding that Hamas renounce terrorism and openly recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Faced with a growing crisis due to the aid cutoff, Hamas entered into a unity government with Fatah in March 2007. By agreeing to “respect” past agreements between the PNA and the PLO with Israel, agreements that had renounced violence and recognized Israel’s right to exist, Hamas had apparently calculated that aid from the West would be restored. But neither the United States nor Israel recognized the unity government.

Meanwhile, the conflict between Hamas and Fatah escalated into street fighting in the Gaza Strip. In June 2007 Hamas’s forces overwhelmed Fatah’s, and Hamas took control of Gaza. Many Fatah supporters sought refuge in the West Bank. In response to the Gaza takeover, Abbas formed an emergency, caretaker government that excluded Hamas. This resulted in a de facto split in the Palestinian polity with Hamas ruling in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank, where it enjoyed a larger base of support. Renewed aid from the EU and the United States was expected to give the Abbas-led government the upper hand and lead to the isolation of Hamas. Almost immediately after the emergency government was formed, Israel began releasing tax and customs receipts to the PNA. At the same time, in an attempt to isolate and cripple Hamas, Israel imposed tight border controls on the Gaza Strip, permitting the entry of only limited amounts of food and medical supplies.

When Israel invaded Gaza in January 2009 in what Israel said was an attempt to destroy Hamas’s ability to fire rockets into southern Israel, the PNA in the West Bank protested Israeli air strikes and artillery assaults on nonmilitary targets, such as civilian neighborhoods and buildings. The PNA asked the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, to investigate charges of crimes against humanity stemming from Israel’s use of white phosphorus, an incendiary that can be lethal in densely populated areas, and the targeting of civilians. PNA security forces also attempted to quell Palestinian protests in the West Bank against the Gaza invasion.

In the wake of the reelection of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister in February 2009 the Israeli organization Peace Now released documents showing that Israel intended to build 73,000 more settler housing units in the West Bank, including 17,000 units outside of existing settlements. Israel’s Housing Ministry dismissed the report, saying the plans for expanded settlements were conditional on government policy. Palestinian human rights activists also reported increased Israeli military crackdowns on peaceful protests in the West Bank against the separation wall, particularly in the area around the village of Jayyous, which lost agricultural land to the neighboring Israeli settlement due to the wall’s construction.