The Struggles Within the West Bank

The West Bank has perhaps been the biggest disputed topic in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The battle for territory of the West Bank is political and religious. The deep rooted religious history between the two nations is the key factor in the reason for their conflict. As time went on, religion and politics began to merge and the current conflict was born. However, while religion is still the core issue, it has evolved into a matter of which nation has the power to take control of the highly revered land.  Over time, the conflict became a game of territorial tug-of-war between the two powers. Palestinians believe that Israel has illegally gained power over the West Bank, whereas Israelis believe it was not Palestine’s land to be occupied in the first place. This has lead Israel to assert its dominance on Palestine with military occupation. The issue of the West Bank is one of religious conflict, territorial dispute, and colonialism, which in result makes negotiations for peace between the people of Israel and Palestine even more difficult.

At approximately 2165 square miles, and west of the Jordan River, the West Bank has a population of roughly 2,386,000  people (Washington Post). The West Bank was first formally part of Palestine but after 1949 it was declared Jordanian territory after Jordan and Israel signed armistice agreements in 1949. It was not until after the Six day War in 1967 that Israel captured and militarily occupied the West Bank from Jordan. (Columbia Press, 2012) They did this in self- defense after Jordan joined a war with Egypt and Syria in order to destroy Israel. Although other countries such as Egypt and Syria have advised Israel to stay out of the West Bank, Israel currently has no intention of surrendering. Israel claims that they are holding the West Bank for security purposes and tactics. They keep this land to keep a bigger distance between them and their enemies.

Within the Six Day War Israel had fought a war with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and within that war Israel was able to take over the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. Prior to Israel’s takeover of the West Bank it had been home to 2.6 million Palestinians, and would make up the heart of any Palestinian state. As a result of the takeover, Israel began to allow Jewish settlers into the West Bank, which is approximately 500,000 Israelis living in the border of the West Bank.

According to Beauchamp, the Palestinians and the international community considered the illegally occupied Palestinian land. Essentially, this can be regarded as a case of colonialism. By definition, according to Krishna and Inayatullah, colonialism is “the combination of economic, social, political, cultural and other policies by which an external power dominates and exploits the people, ideas and resources of an area” dominating of a group of people or state economically, militarily or culturally, or all three. In the case of the takeover of the West Bank, the Israelis use the justification that religion is a justification for the colonization of the West Bank, which they call “Judea and Samaria”, because it represents the historic Jewish homeland. So in this regard, Israel coincides with the terms of the definition stated by Inayatullah and Krishna. Despite parts of the West Bank being administered by Israel, it is illegal to colonize by the Jewish settlers. According to Kamel, if religion were truly the justification and reasoning for the land, then Israel should cease their land from the coast between Ashdod and Ashkelon, which was never part of their ancient Israelite kingdom. In essence, the issue on the West Bank has a major role within the issue of colonialism and rights to the West Bank.  

The West Bank border has caused problems for both Israel and Palestine. George Lowery writes for the Cornell Chronicle about the harm it has caused both societies. The effects on Israeli society are described as “affects social and moral fabric of Israeli”. He expands on this emerging issue as he describes the corruption that is occurring within Israel’s youth. He claims that the youth have been accused of humiliating Palestinians at checkpoints. An explanation for this problem is that these children are taking advantage of having control over Palestinians. Israel is facing social consequences while Palestine is suffering in education and a struggling economy, due to the restriction on movement by people and resources. The borders have limited the freedom of movement for the Palestinians. Lowery writes of cases where Palestinians were not able to travel to an Israeli hospital in East Jerusalem which is the nearest hospital for some Palestinians. Instead, they traveled 60 kilometers to a hospital in Ramallah. Though both societies are facing problems due to the West Bank border, both are exposed to an even greater issue. Both communities are being isolated from one another, lowering the chance for these groups to interact and to remove stereotypes that are given to one another.

Ten years ago, lawmakers of Israel expressed their concern with regard to a testimony about Palestinian children being harassed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. As a result, Israeli government planned an immediate resolution: Israeli soldiers would walk the children to school until they could find a method to stop the menacing.Now, a decade later, dozens of Palestinian children make their way up the rocky hilltops flanked by Israeli troops in full body armor as a form of protection. The soldiers escort them past a Jewish settlement looking after many people, mainly adults, who have attacked the children in any way.

This on-going problem has evolved into what critics have described as a symbol for the supposed Israeli-Palestinian peace process, in which solutions devised as temporary have become, like the conflict itself, a permanent status quo.  This brings more attention to the West Bank, further targeting the issues of conflict surrounding the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace resolution.

For example, in recent news, SodaStream, the Israeli manufacturer of home carbonation systems that just recently became a focal point of an international movement to boycott Israeli products made in the occupied West Bank, plans to close its factory there in the coming months.

The boycott, known as B.D.S., which had agitated against the company, hailed the planned closing of the West Bank factory as a victory.  An investor relations report on the company’s website said it planned to shut its plant in Mishor Adumim, one of 15 industrial zones in West Bank territory that Israel seized, along with a second factory, and condense operations in a facility that opened this May in Lehavim, a small town in the northern Negev Desert of Israel.

            With the century long disputes over who the historic and ancient land belongs to, the on going tension and war happening between the two countries has created land struggle and dispute. The purpose of the land is to be shared and appreciated for its historical knowledge; instead, the land is being used passive aggressively to ward off the other people in the name of religion.

Works Cited

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BDS Movement: Freedom, Justice, Equality (2014, October) What is BDS? Retrieved November 1, 2014

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Kamel, L. (2011, November 16). Colonizing the West Bank in the name of security and religion | 972 Magazine. Retrieved November 2, 2014.

Lowery, G. (2008, July 10). The effects of Israel's West Bank barrier: Hopelessness shattered lives and distrust, says Cornell scholar. Retrieved from Cornell Chronicle: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2008/07/cornell-sociologist-studies-israels-west-bank-barrier

O’Connor, Anne-Marie (2014, November 1) In West Bank, Israeli troops still escort Palestinian children to school. Retrieved November 2, 2014

Rudoren, Jodi (2014, February 10) In West Bank Settlements, Israeli Jobs Are Double-Edged Sword. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

Rudoren, Jodi (2014, October 30) Israeli Firm, Target of Boycott, to Shut West Bank Plant. Retrieved November 2, 2014

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Yiftachel, O. (2012, August 8). Israeli colonialism in West Bank. Retrieved November 2, 2014.