From the early 16th century through 1917, the area now known as the West Bank fell under Ottoman rule. Following World War I, the Allied powers (France, UK, Russia) allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine. After World War II, the UN passed a resolution to establish two states within the Mandate, and designated a territory including what is now known as the West Bank as part of the proposed Arab state. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the area was captured by Transjordan (later renamed Jordan). Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950. In June 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. With the exception of East Jerusalem and the former Israeli-Jordanian border zone, the West Bank has remained under Israeli military control. Under a series of agreements signed between 1994 and 1999, Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for many Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip. Negotiations to determine the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip stalled after the outbreak of an intifada in mid- 2000. In early 2003, the "Quartet" of the US, EU, UN, and Russia, presented a roadmap to a final peace settlement by 2005, calling for two states - Israel and a democratic Palestine. Following Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT's death in late 2004 and the subsequent election of Mahmud ABBAS (head of the Fatah political party) as the PA president, Israel and the PA agreed to move the peace process forward. Israel in late 2005 unilaterally withdrew all of its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip and redeployed its military from several West Bank settlements, but continues to control maritime, airspace, and other access. In early 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, won the Palestinian Legislative Council election and took control of the PA government. Attempts to form a unity government failed, and violent clashes between Fatah and HAMAS supporters ensued, culminating in HAMAS's violent seizure of all military and governmental institutions in the Gaza Strip. Fatah and HAMAS in early 2011 agreed to reunify the Gaza Strip and West Bank, but the factions have struggled to implement details on governance and security. The status quo remains with HAMAS in control of the Gaza Strip and the PA governing the West Bank. Since the collapse of direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians in late 2010, President ABBAS has reaffirmed that he will not resume negotiations until Israel halts all settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Middle East, west of Jordan, east of Israel

32 00 N, 35 15 E

Middle East

slightly smaller than Delaware

0 km (landlocked)

none (landlocked)

temperate; temperature and precipitation vary with altitude, warm to hot summers, cool to mild winters

mostly rugged dissected upland, some vegetation in west, but barren in east

arable land

240 sq km; note - includes Gaza Strip (2003)

droughts

adequacy of freshwater supply; sewage treatment

landlocked; highlands are main recharge area for Israel's coastal aquifers; there are about 355 Israeli civilian sites including about 145 small outpost communities in the West Bank and 32 sites in East Jerusalem (2010 est.)

Palestinian Arab and other 83%, Jewish 17%

Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians), English (widely understood)

Muslim 75% (predominantly Sunni), Jewish 17%, Christian and other 8%

2,676,740 (July 2013 est.)

2.03% (2013 est.)

23.81 births/1,000 population (2013 est.)

3.53 deaths/1,000 population (2013 est.)

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2013 est.)

64 deaths/100,000 live births (2010)

2.91 children born/woman (2013 est.)

NA

NA

NA

2.2% (2007)

NA

The West Bank - the larger of the two areas comprising the Palestinian territories - has sustained a moderate rate of economic growth since 2008. Inflows of donor aid and government spending have driven most of the gains, however. Private sector development has been weak. After a multiyear downturn following the start of the second intifada in 2000, overall standard-of-living measures have recovered and now exceed levels seen in the late 1990s. Despite the Palestinian Authority's (PA) successful implementation of economic and security reforms and the easing of some movement and access restrictions by the Israeli Government, Israeli closure policies continue to disrupt labor and trade flows, industrial capacity, and basic commerce, eroding the productive capacity of the West Bank economy. The biggest impediments to economic improvements in the West Bank remain Palestinians' inability to access land and resources in Israeli-controlled areas, import and export restrictions, and a high-cost capital structure. The PA for the foreseeable future will continue to rely heavily on donor aid for its budgetary needs, and West Bank economic activity will depend largely on the PA's ability to attract such aid.

$8.022 billion (2011 est.)

$7.589 billion (2010 est.)

$7.106 billion (2009 est.)

$6.641 billion

5.7% (2011 est.)

6.8% (2010 est.)

7% (2009 est.)

$2,900 (2008 est.)

745,600 (2010)

23% (2012 est.)

23.5% (2011 est.)

18.3% (2010 est.)

31.6% of GDP (2011 est.)

-16.6% of GDP (2011 est.)

3.5% (2012 est.)

2.9% (2011 est.)

6.8% (31 December 2012 est.)

6.79% (31 December 2011 est.)

$132.8 million (31 December 2012 est.)

$100.4 million (31 December 2011 est.)

$6.674 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$6.674 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$914.9 million (31 December 2012 est.)

$851.1 million (31 December 2011 est.)

$2.532 billion (31 December 2011)

$2.45 billion (31 December 2010)

$2.375 billion (31 December 2009)

olives, citrus fruit, vegetables; beef, dairy products

small-scale manufacturing, quarrying, textiles, soap, olive-wood carvings, and mother-of-pearl souvenirs

NA%

$-2.1 billion (2011 est.)

$-690.7 million (2010 est.)

$666.1 million (2010 est.)

$518 million (2009)

stone, olives, fruit, vegetables, limestone

$4.319 billion (2010 est.)

$3.601 billion (2009)

food, consumer goods, construction materials, petroleum, chemicals

$1.04 billion (2010 est.)

$1.3 billion (2007 est.)

new Israeli shekels (ILS) per US dollar -

3.9 (2012 est.)

3.58 (2011 est.)

3.73 (2010)

3.93 (2009)

3.59 (2008)

calendar year

470 million kWh (2009 est.)

4.42 billion kWh (2009 est.)

0 kWh (2011)

550 million kWh (2011 est.)

140,000 kW

100% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0 bbl/day (2011 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

0 bbl (1 January 2009 es)

0 bbl/day (2008 est.)

29,310 bbl/day (2011 est.)

1.92 bbl/day (2008 est.)

15,420 bbl/day (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2010 est.)

0 cu m (2010 est.)

0 cu m (2010 est.)

0 cu m (2010 est.)

0 cu m (1 January 2012 es)

3.382 million Mt (2010 est.)

337,000 (includes Gaza Strip) (2010)

2.405 million (includes Gaza Strip) (2010)

the Palestinian Authority operates 1 TV and 1 radio station; about 30 independent TV and 25 radio stations; both Jordanian TV and satellite TV are accessible (2008)

.ps; note - same as Gaza Strip

1.379 million (includes Gaza Strip) (2009)

2 (2012)

NA

The current status of the West Bank is subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrew from four settlements in the northern West Bank in August 2005; since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), headquartered in Jerusalem, monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the region