What Is West Bank?
The Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected a petition against the eviction of more than 1,000 Palestinian inhabitants of a rural part of the occupied West Bank in an area which Israel has designated for military exercises.
- Recently, tensions flared up again at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque between the Palestinians and Israeli police.
- The judgment has paved the way for the demolition of eight small villages in a rocky, arid area near Hebron known to Palestinians as Masafer Yatta and to Israelis as the South Hebron Hills.
- Masafer Yatta residents and Israeli rights groups say that many of the Palestinian families have been permanently residing in the 3,000 hectares area since before Israel captured the West Bank, in the 1967 Six-Day War.
- West Bank is a landlocked territory in West Asia. It also contains a significant section of the western Dead Sea.
- It was captured by Jordan after the Arab-Israeli War (1948) but Israel snatched it back during the Six-Day War of 1967 and has occupied it ever since.
- The West Bank is sandwiched between Israel and Jordan.
- One of its major cities is Ramallah, the de facto administrative capital of Palestine.
- At present, there are around 130 formal Israeli settlements along with 26 lakh Palestinians at West Bank.
- Masafer Yatta is in the 60% of the territory where the Palestinian Authority is prohibited from operating.
- The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state.
