10 Facts About Israeli And Palestinian Communities

Jews and Arabs have lived in the West Bank for centuries. Today, the Israeli and
Palestinian governments are negotiating borders for a possible future Palestinian state.

1. The West Bank, known as Judea and Samaria for thousands of years, is part of the ancient homeland of the Jewish people and of Judaism. It was renamed the West Bank by Jordan in 1950.
2. The only time in over a thousand years that Jews were prohibited from living in the West Bank was when Jordan occupied it between 1949 and 1967.
3. The built up areas of Israeli settlements cover approximately 1.7 percent of all West Bank land.
4. Approximately 75 to 80 percent of Israelis in the West Bank live close to or along the lines that separated Israel and the Jordanian-controlled West Bank before the 1967 War. These areas could be easily included on the Israeli side of a future border with minor land swaps.
5. Ninety-eight percent of Palestinians live under the administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in land that covers 40 percent of the West Bank. Israel currently administers 60 percent of the West Bank, known as “Area C,” per the interim steps mutually agreed upon during the Oslo peace process. This virtually vacant area has two percent of all West Bank Palestinians.
6. No internationally recognized border has ever separated Israel and the West Bank. Future borders are to be determined through negotiations.
7. The number of authorized West Bank Israeli communities has remained the same since 1993, when Israel and the Palestinians signed the peace agreement known as the Oslo Accords. However, since 1993, the number of structures and people in many of the settlements has grown.
8. As the Palestinian Authority has begun to improve law and order, the West Bank has experienced renewed prosperity. Notably, the PA is in the process of building its first planned city, Rawabi.
9. No Palestinian Arab state ever existed prior to the one currently being proposed by the United States, Israel, and other nations.
10. One-point-three million Israeli Arab citizens live safely in Israel. With true peace, Jews should be able to safely live in Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, and the proposed Palestinian state.