What is the West Bank in Israel?

It is called the West Bank because it is located west of the Jordan River,but it is actually the eastern portion of the former British Mandate for Palestine. It became a part of Jordan after 1948 when Israeli attempts to seize it were successfully repelled; by 1967 the USG had armed Israel to the level of a European state and they handily conquered the West Bank,seizing it from Jordan. Their military occupation is illegal and is now in it's 41st year. According to the Oslo time-table they were to have evacuated it by no later than 1999 to permit the establishment of a Palestinian State; the current Palestinian Authority is recognized as the legal precursor to the future government of Palestine and maintains an observer's post in the UN pending the end of the occupation and the establishment of the State of Palestine. Such an entity will be a rump republic,comprising a mere 22.5% of the original territory of Mandate Palestine. The Palestinian territories - and the future State of Palestine -

also include what is currently known as the Gaza Strip,now under siege by the Israeli government. Subject to an aerial and naval and land blockade the population of 1.5 million is suffering from malnutrition and lack of medical supplies; the blockade has been repeatedly denounced by humanitarian organizations as an outrage against international law and arguably a major war crime in it's own right. The U.S. engineered a split in the only elected government the Palestinians have ever had in 2006 by with-holding funding for the P.A. unless it ousted the Hamas-dominated legislature from power,which it did in the West Bank but failed to do in the Gaza. Hence there are now two governments for the P.T.,one in the WB and the other in the Gaza. Neither are entirely legitimate. Stay tuned for further developments.

Okay, here it is in a nutshell. The "West Bank" was once part of the nation of Palestine. When Palestine ceased to exist in 1948, the WB was absorbed by Jordan (the remainder of Palestine became Israel.)

In the 1968 war, the West Bank was seized by Israel. However, the late King Hussein of Jordan (of which the WB was officially a part of) ceded the land to the Palestinian people.

It in no way, shape, of form belongs to Israel, nor is it IN Israel. It's a small chunk of what was originally Palestine between Israel and Jordan....you can locate it on a map. To say (as Samsoona does) that it under military "supervision" is laughable; it is under Israeli military OCCUPATION. Yes, it's a piece of land----one where Palestinians lived and thrived. Israel has been in violation of United Nations mandate 242 since 1968 requiring them to give the land back to the rightful owners. Israel, however, continues to build illegal settlements there.

There you are, no religious mumbo-jumbo, just the facts :)

Edit: I stand in awe of Duane's amswer, and I bow down to him :)

In 1948 Palestine seized to exist as a country when the Jews who escaped Europe atrocities (according to the Rothschilds timeline) took most of their land and left them two areas The west bank (Jeurslam included as a joined city) and Gazza. in 1912 jews represented 2% and had one settlment, by 1967 they represent 60% population and own/stole 73% of Palestinans land

West bank is the piece of cake

in which Israel can sell the rejected and class-b or class -c or d of its products

marketing place

cheap labor

experimental field for weapons

first line of human shield

source of reserved waters

I agree with Duane; that is an excellent and accurate summary.

After 1949 it was administered by Jordan, since 1967 occupied by Israel (1995 est. pop. 1,320,000), 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, Jericho, and Bethlehem. East Jerusalem is regarded as part of the West Bank by Arabs; however, Israel has incorporated it into the larger Jerusalem economy and municipality."When serious negotiations begin over the final status of the West Bank, battle lines will be drawn over which settlements should be incorporated into Israel, and which must be evacuated. In August 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon acknowledged that “not all the settlements that are today in Judea and Samaria will remain Israeli.”

In Gaza, Israel’s intent was always to withdraw completely, and no settlements were viewed as vital to Israel for economic, security, or demographic reasons. The situation in the West Bank is completely different because Jews have strong historic and religious connections to the area stretching back centuries. Moreover, the West Bank is an area with strategic significance because of its proximity to Israel’s heartland and the fact that roughly one-quarter of Israel’s water resources are located there.

The disengagement from Gaza involved only 21 settlements and approximately 8,000 Jews; more than 100 settlements with a population of roughly 250,000 are located in Judea and Samaria. Any new evacuation from the West Bank will involve another gut-wrenching decision that most settlers and their supporters will oppose with even greater ferocity than the Gaza disengagement. Most Israelis, however, favor withdrawing from small, isolated communities, and about half of the settlements have fewer than 500 residents.

Approximately two-thirds of the Jews in the West Bank live in five settlement “blocs” that are all near the 1967 border. Most Israelis believe these blocs should become part of Israel

Along with the Gaza strip it is legally a part of the Palestinian Territories. It is not a part of Israel under international law and they actually have no legal authority there.

Essentially it's the boundary after 1948 to the West of the Jordan River also known as Trans-Jordan.

The West Bank is a landlocked territory on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south the West Bank shares borders with mainland Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the country of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant coast line along the western bank of the Dead Sea.

Since 1967 most of the West Bank has been under Israeli military supervision.

Not used for military "stuff".

In orange

http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/maps/israel.westbank....

the west side of the jordan river sort of like the west side of the hudson is jersey :)