When did israel take control of the West Bank?

Answer 1

Israel has a number of issues as concerns giving up control of the West Bank. This list a non-exhaustive set of reasons.

1) Strategic Physical Defense Issues: If Israel were to withdraw out of the West Bank, the area around the city of Herzliyya would be only 8 miles wide. If this area was breached by an attacking Arab army, Israel could be cleaved in two (Galilee and Central Regions) in only fifteen minutes and would greatly threaten Israeli viability.

2) Strategic Air Defense: The Judean Highlands, which make up the lower half of the West Bank are some of the tallest mountains/hills in Israel. As a result, they have a large number of radar towers used to maintain vigilance over all of Israeli airspace. Without a highland position, of which there are few in 1949-Israel, such a sensor array would be ineffective at scanning Israeli airspace.

3) Palestinian Militants: Even though Salam Fayyad has done an incredible job of reducing the amount of Palestinian Extremists operating in the West Bank, there still remain a number of Terrorist organizations in the territory. A withdrawal from the territory would not only embolden them, but make communications, meetings, and other dealings easier for them. The Palestinian Police cannot control the territory alone at this point.

4) Israeli Settlements: Israel has 121 settlements with nearly 350,000 inhabitants in the West Bank. (This does not count for internal redistribution in Jerusalem). Many of these settlements are firmly entrenched both in the minds of their occupants and in terms of their building structures (such as government offices, universities, highways, and other markers of long-term settlement). Removing these settlements would be one of the most difficult things for Israel to do militarily-speaking and politically-speaking (as a number of political parties actively support West Bank settlement).

5) Jerusalem: Jerusalem has a lot of significance to Jews and both Eastern Jerusalem and the Old City of Jerusalem are considered part of the West Bank. The idea of a unified Jerusalem is considered very special to a great number of Israelis and control of the Old City is seen as the only practical way to make sure that Jews can access the holy sites there. (Under Jordanian occupation, Jews could not go to their holy sites.)

6) Non-Jerusalem Holy Sites: The West Bank (by sheer accident of history) happens to be where much of Ancient Israel used to exist. Therefore, a number of Biblical cities with an Israelite past, like Hebron, Jericho, Bethlehem, Shchem (Nablus), and others, are in the West Bank. There are numerous holy sites in those places as well as the historical past buried in them. Many Israelis do not want to lose access to those places as well.

7) Religious Zionism: There are numerous political parties (and the Israelis they represent) who believe that Zionism refers to Divine Mandate to create a State in all lands controlled by the Israelites. Since the Israelites controlled the West Bank (and it was the center of their Kingdom), the West Bank is necessarily, in their view, part of any Jewish State.

Answer 2

In The Bible, the Israelites were promised the land of Canaan, which was much larger than it is today. Because Ha'Shem gave the land to them, they have the rights to it.

I personally believe this. Many people have differing beliefs. However, the Holy Qur'an says G-d gave Israel to the Jews.

Answer 3

Israel fought and shed blood to gain the West Bank as part of a counteroffensive against the Jordanian Army in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 (Six Day War), they were not just awarded or gifted to Israel. After the war, Israeli occupation of the territories taken in that war was legitimated subject to future peace treaties according to UNSC Resolution 242. One of the key advantages of retaining the new territories, was that Israel gained a fundamental shift in Middle Eastern policy. It would now be negotiating with Arab countries from a position of strength, being able to return tracts of Arab land to the Arab States for peace as opposed to merely just asking for peace. This is the main reason that Egypt and Jordan eventually were willing to sue for peace even though no other Arab country has done so.

The West Bank, in particular, is also very special to religious Israeli Jews since numerous Jewish holy sites (and most of Ancient Israel) is in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, which are both considered Occupied Territories. These include the Western Wall in Jerusalem and the entire Old City, the Cave of the Ramban, the "City of David", David's Burial Ground at Mount Zion, the Tomb of Samuel just north of Jerusalem, the city of Hebron and the nearby the Cave of Machpelah, Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, the tombs of Pinehas and the Elders of the Great Assembly at Awarta, and Rachel's tomb outside of Bethlehem. The Palestinians under Israeli occupation currently deface many of these sites and attack Jews who seek to pray at them. Jordanians actively forbid Jews from visiting these places when they controlled the West Bank in 1949-1967. The Ottomans were not great protectors of the region either. Many Jews are worried that if the Palestinians gain full autonomy, they will prevent Jews from visiting and praying at their holy sites, especially the Western Wall, since Jordanian rulers have done similarly in history.

Answer 4

Israel took control of the West Bank during the 1967 war.