West Bank (region), Palestine
The West Bank is a significant and contested region in the Middle East, situated to the west of the Jordan River and adjacent to the Dead Sea. It holds immense cultural and religious importance for both Jews and Arabs, featuring key cities such as Bethlehem, Jericho, and Hebron. Historically known by various names, the West Bank has been under different controls throughout its long history, including periods of rule by the Ottoman Empire and later by the British after World War I. Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel gained full control of the West Bank, a situation that has led to ongoing tension and conflict.
The demographic landscape includes approximately 3.1 million Palestinians who live under Israeli military law, while nearly half a million Israeli settlers reside in the area, contributing to a complex and often volatile political situation. The establishment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is viewed by many as a violation of international law, though Israel disputes this designation. In response to Israeli control, Palestinians have engaged in various forms of resistance, leading to uprisings known as the Intifadas and ongoing military confrontations. As of 2024, the region is governed by the Palestinian Authority, but tensions have escalated recently due to violent incidents and military operations, further complicating the path toward peace and stability in the area.
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West Bank (region), Palestine
The West Bank is an area in the Middle East containing several culturally important landmarks for Abrahamic religions. It is the historic homeland of both Jews and Arabs. Control over the West Bank has been traded a number of times. Israel has claimed it since the 1960s.
The West Bank is a particularly volatile area of the Middle East. Many Palestinians resist Israeli control, conducting violent attacks against both the Israeli military and Israel's civilian population. In return, Israel's military commonly raids Palestinian terrorist strongholds. The military has also created fences, checkpoints, and fortifications throughout the West Bank to make it more difficult for attackers to reach Israeli civilians.
Background
Palestine is the name of a portion of land in the Middle East that stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. It contains the holiest sites in the world's Abrahamic religions. In ancient times Palestine was the site of the Jewish kingdoms of Israel and Judah and was conquered by the Assyrians and Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Arabs. Although some remained, the Jewish people largely migrated from their ancestral homeland to various parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
During the medieval and early modern periods, Christian and Islamic rulers fought repeatedly for control of Palestine and its holy sites; these conflicts were known as the Crusades. Palestine was claimed by the Ottoman Empire from the early sixteenth century until the early twentieth century.
Great Britain took control of Palestine after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I (1914–18). The Arab peoples who lived in the area believed they would soon be able to govern themselves, as other parts of the former Ottoman Empire were. They felt that their participation in the fight against the Ottoman Turks, as well as agreements with the Allies, granted them control over Palestine. However, from the late nineteenth century through the period of British occupation, many Jews migrated to Palestine from Europe, and Great Britain designated Palestine a "national home for the Jewish people" in its Balfour Declaration.
The two groups lived together harmoniously at first. However, tensions began to rise once they realized that their desires were incompatible. The majority-Muslim Arabs felt that the Jews were a threat to their culture and way of life. The Jews felt that the Arabs were a threat to their holy sites and promised homeland. The two peoples began to riot against both each other and the British, their common enemy.
After their participation in World War II (1939–45), both Palestinian Jews and Arabs had garnered significant military experience. They used this newfound skill to attack the British, attempting to drive what they viewed as an oppressive, occupational government out of their territory. The British attempted to continue to keep order, fearing that a war might break out between the Jews and Arabs without British presence in the area.
The formation of the United Nations and the recognition of the Holocaust during World War II quickly changed the West's ideas about how to govern Palestine. The United Nations proposed dividing Palestine into two nations: one Jewish and one Arab. An Arab nation would allow Palestinian Arabs to keep their homes, much of their original territory, and allow the British to honor agreements made during World War I. A Jewish nation would allow Jewish people unrestricted access to their ancient holy sites, and a guaranteed safe place for Jews after the Holocaust. Many believed that a Jewish nation was necessary to prevent another Holocaust from ever happening.
Once the United Nations decided upon the borders, and each government was given time to prepare, the British withdrew from Palestine and the new nation of Israel was created in May 1948. Immediately afterward, Palestine and several neighboring nations, including Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, launched an offensive against Israel. Israel defeated the attackers, forcing an armistice agreement to be signed by their neighbors.
Overview
The West Bank is a controversial part of the land formerly considered Palestine, which is west of the Jordan River and partly bordered by the Dead Sea. Throughout history, the area has variously been called Judea and Samaria, Syria Palaestina, Greater Syria, and Mandatory Palestine. It includes the historically and religiously important cities of Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron, and East Jerusalem.
After the Israeli War of Independence (1947–49) concluded, the armistice agreement granted Transjordan (now Jordan) control of the West Bank; Jordan would eventually give up its claim to the West Bank in 1988. However, the armistice failed to cause lasting peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Many wars followed, and lasting periods of peace failed to materialize.
During the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, Israeli forces seized total control of the West Bank. After the war ended, Israel was expected to cede control of the area back to the Palestinians. Instead, Israeli forces remained in the area, issuing martial law. Palestinians and the citizens of other nearby Arab nations were outraged. However, they proved unable to reclaim the area from Israeli control. Those who were displaced, as well as their descendants, have asserted they have a "right of return" to their former homes, which Israel denies.
Conflict over the West Bank flared again in the late 1970s. Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin created a program that funded the construction of several large-scale housing developments of Israelis in the West Bank. However, most residents of the area still considered themselves Arab citizens of Palestine living under Israeli occupation. They resented the introduction of more Jewish people into their territory and resisted being pushed off their land.
Over decades, Israeli settlements spread. They entrenched Israeli rule in the West Bank, settling more Jews there and pushing Jewish culture into the territory. The creation of these Israeli settlements is widely seen as a violation of international law, as occupiers cannot settle their own citizens in occupied territory; Israel, for its part, does not consider its presence in the West Bank to be an occupation but rather "administration" of what it calls the Judea and Samaria district. By 2022, Israeli settlers in the West Bank numbered nearly a half million, and Israel's laws and rights extend to them.
At the same time, an estimated 3.1 million Palestinians still lived in cities and homesteads in the West Bank in 2023, although an exact number was not known after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas. The young, highly urbanized population was highly literate and underemployed—in fact, in the early 2020s, despite its service-oriented economy, small-scale manufacturing, and artisan crafts, the West Bank had one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. Residents must import food, fuel, and consumer goods, among other things, and are completely reliant on oil for their electricity. West Bank Palestinians are not considered citizens of Israel and are not represented in the Israeli government but are still subject to Israel's laws and trade restrictions.
In resistance to Israeli rule, several Palestinian organizations have resorted to both guerilla warfare and terrorism. In the late 1980s, the Palestinians launched an uprising, known as the First Intifada. That rebellion contributed to the negotiation of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which granted the West Bank a measure of self-rule. Talks with Israel about when and how much Israelis would withdraw from the West Bank took place in 2000 and 2001 but soon broke down. From 2000 to 2005, during the Second Intifada, Palestinian attacks killed more than one thousand civilians and seriously injured thousands of others. Afterward, attacks increased in frequency and severity. Many Palestinian attacks were made within Israel itself by attackers who traveled through the West Bank undetected.
In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began carrying out raids, built a wall and fortifications throughout parts of the West Bank, and increased their military presence in the area. Critics say the wall, which ostensibly follows the armistice line, departs from that boundary in multiple places. In 2004, the International Court of Justice deemed the barrier unlawful and recommended its removal. While these tactics resulted in a marked decrease of Israeli civilian casualties, conflict continued intermittently.
Under Oslo Accords, the West Bank was governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) as of 2024, and the militant group Hamas maintained control of the Gaza Strip. The West Bank was the target of raids to find militants beginning in 2022 because of attacks on Israel. The cities of Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm were the most often raided. On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip, creating the deadliest day in Israel since its independence in 1948. This intensified the raids in the West Bank. The following year, Israel announced an offensive move from the West Bank that it claimed would prevent additional terrorist attacks against its people. Israeli forces damaged roads and other infrastructure while trying to root out militants.
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