West Bank - territory, formerly part of Palestine, after 1949 administered by Jordan, since 1967 occupied by Israel (1997 pop. 1,873,476), 2,165 sq mi (5,607 sq km), west of the Jordan River, incorporating the northwest quadrant of the Dead Sea. Since mid-1994 limited Palestinian self-rule has existed in portions of the West Bank. Israelis who regard the area as properly Jewish territory often refer to it by the biblical names of Judaea and Samaria. The largest and most historically important cities are Hebron, Nablus, Bethlehem, and Jericho. East Jerusalem is regarded as part of the West Bank by Arabs; however, Israel has incorporated it into the larger Jerusalem economy and municipality.

People and Economy

The population of the West Bank is composed primarily of Muslim Palestinian Arabs, many of whom live in large, impoverished refugee camps. In addition, about 240,000 Jewish Israelis live in government-subsidized settlements throughout the West Bank. Although the land in the N West Bank is fertile, lack of resources and Israeli policy over the area have stagnated economic progress. Olives, fruit, and citrus products are produced. Family businesses and small-scale industries manufacture such goods as architectural limestone, cement, and textiles, although investment capital is paltry. The area is also dependent on work in Israel proper for employment.

History

The West Bank was declared part of Jordanian territory after Israel and Jordan signed armistice agreements in 1949. The area became occupied by Israel as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Israeli military and economic policies dominated the West Bank. Conflicts with Arab residents there grew in the late 1970s as Israeli Jewish settlers, encouraged by the Begin administration, began a series of large-scale housing developments. Although the Camp David Accords (1978) incorporated plans for Arab self-rule in the West Bank, this goal remained elusive.

Israel's incursion into Lebanon in 1982 to destroy Palestinian armed bases exacerbated rioting and political turmoil in the West Bank. Israel responded with military curfews and increased Israeli troop presence. The development of the Intifada (Palestinian uprising), which began in Gaza in 1987, embroiled the West Bank in outbreaks of stone-throwing, protests, and violent attacks. Israeli reprisals resulted in hundreds of Palestinian deaths, property damage, high unemployment, and reduced living standards. Due to the Persian Gulf War (1991), the West Bank was hit with further economic hardship as Palestinian workers returned en masse from the war zone. Loss of export markets in the Gulf and with Jordan further diminished West Bank revenues.

Rioting and clashes with Israeli troops continued into the 1990s. An accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), reached in 1993 after secret negotiations, led to limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in mid-1994. Agreements providing for a transfer of control to Palestinians in the West Bank town of Jericho and the Gaza Strip, and then in the other West Bank cities and towns (except East Jerusalem), were finalized in 1994 and 1995; most had been implemented by early 1996. In Mar., 1996, Israel sealed off many towns in the West Bank following a series of suicide bombings inside Israel. Yasir Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian-controlled territory in 1996. Most of Hebron was handed over to the Palestinians in 1997 and, in a 1998 accord, Israel agreed to withdraw from additional West Bank territory. Although progress was slow, this was accomplished by Mar., 2000.

Negotiations in 2000 proved unfruitful, and widespread violence erupted in the West Bank (and Gaza) in the fall after Ariel Sharon visited the Haram esh-Sherif (or Temple Mount) in Jerusalem. Efforts to resume to talks were subsequently mainly unsuccessful, stymied by mutual distrust and a cycle of fighting and violence, including suicide bombings by Palestinians and Israeli attacks on facilities of the Palestinian authority and Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian territory. The continuing growth of Israeli settlements in the region, which nearly doubled in population from 1992 to 2001, has also proved a major irritant to Arabs and stumbling block to peace.

In Mar., 2003, the Palestinian parliament established the post of prime minister, effectively reducing Arafat's powers as president; Mahmoud Abbas, regarded as more moderate than Arafat, was appointed to the post. The acceptance by Palestinians and Israelis of an internationally supported "road map for peace" raised hopes for a cessation of violence, though militant Palestinian groups only agreed (June) to a three-month cease-fire that did not hold even that long. Abbas resigned in September and was replaced by Ahmad Qurei, who, like Abbas, clashed with Arafat over control of the security forces.

Israel's construction of a security barrier in the West Bank became an international issue in 2003. It was begun in 2002 in the N West Bank, where it paralleled the border, and around Jerusalem, but plans to extend it south and into the West Bank to protect Israeli settlements brought widespread condemnation. The United Nations estimated that 274,000 Palestinians would end up in the 15% of the territory on the Israeli side of the 400-mi (640-km) fence and wall barrier, and that 400,000 more would have their lives disrupted by it. The United Nations General Assembly requested (Dec., 2003) that the International Court of Justice issue an advisory opinion on the barrier.

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