May 21, 2013
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Description
The West Bank is a landlocked territory, located in Western Asia. The West Bank shares boundaries to the west, north, and south with the state of Israel, and to the east, across the Jordan River, with the Kingdom of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant coastline along the western bank of the Dead Sea.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has a land area of 5,640 km² and 220 km² water, the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea. It has an estimated population of 2,622,544. More than 80 percent, about 2,100,000, are Palestinian Arabs, and approximately 500,000 are Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank, including about 192,000 in East Jerusalem, in Israeli settlements. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
From 1517 through 1917, the area now known as the West Bank was under Ottoman rule as part of the provinces of Syria. At the 1920 San Remo conference, the victorious Allied powers allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine. Following the Second World War, the United Nations passed the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 Future Government of Palestine, which aimed to establish two states within Mandate Palestine. The Resolution designated the territory described as "the hill country of Samaria and Judea" as part of the proposed Arab state, but following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War this area was captured by Transjordan. "West Bank" or "Cisjordan" became the name for the area west of the Jordan River, as "East Bank" or "Transjordan" designated the area east of the river. The interim boundary between Israel and Jordan's West Bank was defined in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Jordan ruled over the West Bank from 1948 until 1967, annexing it in 1950. Jordan's claim was never formally recognized by the international community, with the exception of the United Kingdom.
(via Freebase)
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