West Bank
The West Bank is a region of the Middle East that is an issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It covers an area of 5860 km 2 and has a total population estimated at 2,514,845 people (2010), including 489,500 Israeli settlers (2008-2009), 192,800 (2008) of them live in East Jerusalem who home 208 000 Palestinians (2008).
The boundaries of the region followed the Jordan, the Dead Sea and the Green Line (the cease-fire of the First Arab-Israeli War ). The West Bank includes the cities of East Jerusalem , Jericho , Nablus , Hebron , Jenin and Tulkarm and Israeli settlements such that Ariel , Ma'ale Adumim , Betar Illit and Gush Etzion and many holy places of three monotheistic religions.
The region has been the subject of numerous UN resolutions including 181 and 242. Israel, which designates it as "Judea and Samaria," sees it as a disputed territory and the international community in occupied territory. The Palestinian Authority claims it to found a Palestinian state already recognized these borders several countries . Since then, Israel has encouraged the establishment of illegal settlers in 1982 and annex East Jerusalem and made " Jerusalem united "the capital against the advice of the international community. In 1988, the PLO formally declares the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. Between 1990 and 2001, the status and sharing in the region have been unsuccessful negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Since 2002, ostensibly to fight against " Palestinian terrorism ", Israel is building a West Bank separation fence route at issue and despite the condemnations of the international community .
Summary |
Etymologically, "West Bank" means the area "same side" (the Latin word cis ), compared to Jordan , as opposed to the "other side", the other bank of the river, called Trans --jordan. This term is usually used for the west bank of the Jordan and appeared between 1948 and 1967 related to the period of annexation by the Kingdom which is still called at the time of Transjordan. This kingdom Hashemite had been artificially created in the 1920s on the east bank of the river had been transformed by the League of Nations in British mandate at the same time as Palestine on the other side.
Anglophones use more often, for this same region, the term "West Bank" - literally "west bank" - Geographic name and also has the advantage of being more neutral vis--vis the other side of Jordan, but the term is also more vague in relation to possible border with the State of Israel , which was established in 1948 on the same side of the shore.
In Israel, the government and a majority of Israelis adopt since 1967 and more strongly since the advent of the first government of Menachem Begin in 1977 , the name "Yehuda vShomron" "(" Judea and Samaria ") with reference to the biblical territories of the two kingdoms from the schism between Judah (capital: Jerusalem) and Israel (capital: Samaria). Others use the Hebrew term "Haggadah haMa'aravit" . Finally, Arabic (second official language of the State of Israel), sometimes found for the designation of this region the term "Al Dhifi Al Gharbia" meaning "west bank".
The Israeli official expression of Judea and Samaria (Judea and Samaria or) asserts the historical connection between Jewish identity and territory.
The UN itself has also used the terms Judea and Samaria in the text of the resolution 181 of November 1947 to designate precisely in its Part 2, the boundaries of two states, Arab and Jew, to be created by sharing the Palestine Mandate. In this official document, the UN uses as reference the known boundaries of the Judea and Samaria as regions, while it speaks of the Galilee , the Negev , the Haifa District or District Gaza , or sub-district administrative time.
Public figures like Hugh Fitzgerald , vice president of Jihad Watch Board , call into question the use of the term "West Bank", explaining that the term is imprecise and potentially the entire state of Israel (with the possible exception of the Negev ) is west of the Jordan. According to them, it is preferable to use an expression like "Judea and Samaria" is several thousand years, rather than "West Bank" which dates only from the Jordanian occupation. For others, such as linguistics professor Lewis Glinert regret , "the battle of words is lost to the Israelis" on the use of the term "West Bank" because "Jordanians, the British and potentially the world" already use this term.
History
The history of the West Bank does not differ in any respect from that of the whole region until 1948. The West Bank covers the historical provinces of Samaria and Judea. The successive fall of these two kingdoms up these territories in the areas of Babylonian empires, and finally the Greek and Persian. Royalty Hasmonean temporarily restore Jewish sovereignty on the borders of growing before losing to the Roman Empire. The last Jewish rebellion is crushed in the second century. Christianity necessary to the Roman Empire and Byzantium.
As for the rest of the Middle East, a large segment of the population of these provinces converts to Islam from the seventh century, but there remain significant minorities of continually Christians , of Jews , the Samaritans and Druze. Jerusalem becomes the sixteenth century, a province of the Ottoman Empire , before undergoing the nineteenth century, the growing influence of Great Britain .
After the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire , the League of Nations entrusted the United Kingdom a mandate over Palestine in 1920. From 1917 , the Balfour Declaration gave himself the charge will be a "Jewish national home", while wishing to ensure the preservation of civil and religious rights of the Arab population.
Before the growth of Jewish immigration from the late nineteenth century, the Arab population organizes several disorders (including riots in Jerusalem in 1920 , the Hebron massacre of 1929 ), and even a real uprising between end of 1935 and 1939.
The partition plan of Palestine in November 1947 provides all the mountains of Judea and Samaria in the borders of the Arab state which he planned creation (except for Jerusalem with a separate status). The year 1947 sees the clash violently Jewish and Arab populations of Palestine. The day after the British left, the State of Israel proclaimed its independence on 14 May 1948 on the territory allocated to it by resolution 181. The armies of neighboring Arab countries based on the new state immediately. Transjordan, which has the most powerful Arab army in the region (the Arab Legion ), has plans to annex the largest possible portion of Palestine arriving from the east. The Israelis can resist pushing their opponents into the city of Jerusalem. The armistice obtained freezes the front lines and the green line surrounds the region still occupied by the Arab Legion at the end of the conflict.
The Transjordan , where the British mandate already applies most since May 1946, proclaimed the annexation of the area now known as the West Bank and lies on both banks of the Jordan River. The West Bank while sharing the history of Jordan this time. Abd Allah ibn Hussein becomes the first king. This annexation was recognized only by the United Kingdom. In the years that followed, fedayeen crossed the Green Line from the West Bank to make raids into Israeli territory.
The Six Day War in 1967 between Israel and its neighbors lost the kingdom of Transjordan , since renamed Jordan , the territories it controlled west of the Jordan West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel takes control of the region and establish Jewish settlements in those territories and submit it to a military administration. The Hashemite Kingdom continues to control the public (hospitals, schools, municipalities) and manage the Islamic holy places. .
From 2001 , the hardening of positions in the negotiations and especially the second intifada undermine the peace process. In the West Bank, many Israeli incursions are taking place in retaliation for suicide attacks Palestinians. The largest of these incursions (named " Operation Defensive Shield ") is triggered by a particularly deadly Palestinian attack in the city of Netanya (the " Passover Massacre ") on 27 March 2002 - claimed by the Islamist movement Hamas. The attack has left 30 people dead in the end. "Rampart" consisted of a reoccupation of most Palestinian cities in the West Bank, mainly Ramallah (where the presidential compound of Yasser Arafat has been largely destroyed, and the center of the Palestinian Preventive Security located Beitounya), Nablus (where particularly violent fighting in the casbah have caused the death of 78 Palestinians), and Jenin.
In 2002, the Israeli government (then a coalition government including both the Likud as Labour ) decided to construct a separation barrier whose stated aim is to protect Israeli citizens from suicide bombers. A controversy immediately exploded, fueled by the route of the passage of the fence. The latter, encroaching sometimes well beyond the borders of 1967, is regarded by Palestinians as an attempt to ownership of land through a fait accompli on the ground. This controversy culminated in the intervention of the International Court of Justice on the subject, who said the "wall" illegal, following a resolution of the General Assembly to read it. Israel has not ratified the treaty creating the court and does not recognize his authority on this issue on which it would have been accessed without the agreement of the parties involved .
This barrier increases significantly the economic problems of the Palestinian population and, in some cases, creates barriers to access to health care and education. However, it has had a significant impact on the number of suicide attacks on Israeli territory. Late November 2004 , the Supreme Court of the State of Israel has ordered significant changes in the route of the fence closer to the 1967 borders. However, "blocks" of Israeli settlements located in the Palestinian territories are included in the realigned.
In June 2005 , in the process linked to the Israeli decision to withdraw a portion of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip , the Supreme Court of the State of Israel declared that these territories were occupied a result of war and were not part of the national territory.
Geography
The West Bank is an area of 5860 km bounded on the north, west and south by the State of Israel of 307 km of border ( green line ) resulting from the armistice of 1949. To the east, the Jordan River forms a natural border of 97 km with Jordan while the south-east of the country is bordered by the Dead Sea.
The lowest point is located near the Dead Sea at an elevation of -408 m at the bottom of the depression of the Jordan Valley. The Judean Mountains culminate in Mount Hazor to 1022 m, followed by the mountains Ebal (940 m) and Gerizim (881 m).
The main rivers are:
- the Wadi Fa'rah , Samaria, which flows into the Jordan;
- the MUFJ (the Hadera for Israelis), in Samaria, which flows into the Mediterranean Sea at Hadera in Israel;
- Kabibala Wadi (river or Lachish for Israelis), in Judea, which flows into the Mediterranean to Ashdod in Israel.
The main Palestinian West Bank cities are:
- East Jerusalem (the part of Jerusalem to the east of the green line is managed in fact by the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, uniting East and West . However, it is claimed by the Palestinian Authority to become the capital of future Palestinian state).
- Ramallah
- Jericho
- Jenin
- Tulkarem
- Qalqilya
- Bethlehem
- Hebron
- Nablus
The main Jewish settlements established in the West Bank are:
Population
The West Bank population is composed of:
- approximately two million Palestinians, 208,000 to East Jerusalem ;
- approximately 192,800 settlers Israel in East Jerusalem ;
- approximately 296,700 settlers Israeli settlements in the rest of the West Bank .
The total population of the entire range of 2,514,845 to 2.858 million people , .
Palestinian Arabs
According to Palestinian statistics institute PCBS, the Palestinian Arab population in the West Bank reached 3.762 million in 2005. However, these figures have been revised downwards thereafter. These figures have been overstated in the census of 1997 in order to receive more help from the international community but also for political reasons during the ongoing peace negotiations. Revised figures in 2005 will prove to be equally false thereafter .
In 2006, estimates of the Palestinian population - including East Jerusalem - vary, according to an Israeli-American study, 1.7 million to 2.4 million, the official figure.
More recently in 2007, new population statistics indicate a Palestinian Arab population estimated at 2.345 million people in the West Bank .
Palestinian Arabs account for 82% of the population of West Bank .
Israeli Settlers
According to Israeli statistics institute, in 2009, the Israeli Jewish population of the West Bank is estimated at 220,000 persons in East Jerusalem and 293 000 in the rest of the territory and suffers a high growth rate because of the Immigration and a very high birth rate (+4.1% yoy in 2009) among Jewish settlers in West Bank, exceeding that of the Palestinians.
A study by Sciences Po , Israeli settlers represent 20% of the total population in 2005 and probably 25.5% in 2025; forward with the completion of the separation fence, they could take up to 40% territory de facto annexed by Israel .
The establishment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank was encouraged by Israel since its occupation in 1967, with an acceleration of the movement since 1977, under the government of Menachem Begin. The settlement policy continued throughout the period of the peace process despite the various commitments made by Israelis freeze. The number of settlers has more than doubled between 1993 and 2006 . The settlements are illegal according to the resolutions passed by the UN .
According to a report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories presented 15 March 2000 by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, "the proportion of Palestinian land confiscated by Israel would be to about 60% in the West Bank and 33% in the Gaza Strip and 33% of Palestinian land in Jerusalem - or at least 32.5 square kilometers, and that for public, semi-public or private, in order to create Israeli military zones, settlements, industrial areas, bypass roads and quarries and to put land under state control for the exclusive use of Israel Living conditions Since 2000 and the Second Intifada , the living conditions of people in the West Bank Palestinian cause for increasing concern. Several missions mandated by the UN, as well as countless testimonies indicate a dramatic decline in living standards, level of education, and health monitoring of populations. The main factor cited is the emphasis, since the second intifada, the severe restriction of movement of goods and people set up by the Israeli army. Some cities ( Jericho and Jenin , for example) are surrounded by a moat prohibiting the entry or exit of the city, except for crossings or "checkpoints controlled by the army. There are also more than a hundred of these checkpoints scattered throughout the West Bank roads, and countless mobile controls. Israel in turn ensures that these checkpoints are necessary to protect its citizens in Israel and West Bank. Moreover, the presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements add sources of conflict and serious incidents. Today, over two thirds of Palestinians have less than 2 per day to live . The West Bank economy was mainly agricultural under Jordanian occupation. The occupation by Israel from 1967 promoted the development of an industrial workforce by using tens of thousands of Palestinian workers employed in Israeli industry , especially in the construction sector. However, this workforce is the first affected by the measures periodic closures of the occupied territories motivated by terrorist threats. Industrial activity did not offset the loss of agricultural jobs, also due to colonization of the best land. Today, agriculture accounts for less than 20% of GDP , against 40% for industry and services. Industrial activity is limited to light industry can be very close to the craft. Economy
References
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