The West Bank - an evaluation

The so-called "West Bank" (WB) is an invention of British colonialism that has no real historical significance.  It resulted from the 1948 Israel War of Independence, and first saw life as the major region of the former British Mandate of Palestine that was not captured by Jewish/Israeli forces.  During that war the regions of Judea and Samaria were occupied by the troops of the Transjordan Arab Legion that was under British officers.  Their Commander-in-Chief was Glubb Pasha, an Englishman who followed British orders.  

To call the area by its proper geographical names, the northern lobe being Samaria and the southern lobe being Judea, was too long and difficult for modern media, so it was renamed "The West Bank" of the River Jordan, an area about the size of Greater London or of Los Angeles.  To understand the irregular ceasefire line around the WB one must view a topological map and see that it runs along the base of the hills of Judea and Samaria.  

The occupation of the WB by Jordan (that then dropped the "trans") was illegal, and was only recognized by Great Britain and Pakistan, but was not recognized by the US, UN, or any other Arab countries. There was never Palestinian sovereignty over the WB, Jordan opposed Palestinian independence.  Only after Israel captured the area in the Six Day War of 1967 did the concept of a Palestinian State on the "West Bank" become fashionable Arab and left-wing propaganda.

The history of the Middle East in the twentieth century goes back to the treaties that followed the end of WWI. These treaties were governed in effect by the secret Sykes-Picot Treaty between Britain and France that was a colonial carve-up of the Turkish Empire.  Under the articles of the San Remo Treaty of 1922, ratified by the League of Nations (the precursor to the UN), Britain was given Mandates over Palestine and Mesopotamia, from which it created Iraq, and France was given a Mandate over Syria, from which it created Lebanon to protect the Christians.  Note that America did not have any Mandates, because the US did not declare war on Turkey and so had little or no say in the carve up of the Turkish Empire.  Mandates were invented to allow the colonial powers to retain control, with the fiction that they would ultimately give the local peoples self-determination.  But, in every case this had to be fought for.  It is also noteworthy that the Mandate for Palestine incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that committed the British Government to establish a Jewish Homeland, but said nothing about an Arab or Palestinian homeland.  

After 1967 Israel occupied the WB, but this was not a "foreign occupation" and was not subject to the Geneva Conventions.  Since the legal standing of this area remained unchanged from before the 1948 war, it remained legitimate for Israel to claim it under the San Remo Treaty. But, Israel did not incorporate the area after the Six Day War, partly because it was largely settled by Arabs and partly because it was a disputed territory, the fate of which according to UN resolutions was supposed to be negotiated between the two sides.  If there had been a negotiated settlement soon after 1967 there would likely not have been Jewish settlements on the WB.  But in the absence of such an agreement Jewish settlers came and had the legal right to remain. 

Under the Oslo Accords of 1993, the two sides divided the area of the WB into areas under Israeli control, areas under Palestine Authority (PA) control and some areas of joint control.  Yasir Arafat returned to the WB in 1994, but the reign of terrorism that he unleashed called the second intifada (2000-2002) caused this arrangement to be discarded. 

The current President of the PA is Mahmud Abbas. The last PA elections took place in 2006, and according to the PA constitution his position is now illegal and he cannot make major decisions.  Although Israel has built a security fence around the WB for protection of its citizens from Palestinian terrorists, since there is no partner for peace negotiations it is likely that in the fullness of time the PA will collapse and Israel will be forced to re-occupy all of the West Bank to prevent it from becoming another hot-bed of terrorist activity.  Recently a UN appointed Commission investigated the possibility of the WB becoming a Palestinian State and found that due to its lack of infrastructure and its lack of economic basis such a State was infeasible.  The rest of the world needs to face this reality.