West Bank

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West Bank Region w of the River Jordan and nw of the Dead Sea. It was designated an Arab district in the United Nations' (UN) plan for the partition of Palestine (1947). It was administered by Jordan after the first Arab-Israeli War (1948), but captured by Israel in the Six-Day War (1967). In 1988, Jordan surrendered its claim to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Yasir Arafat. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) gained limited autonomy in the West Bank by the Israeli-Palestinian Accord (1994). Difficulties created by the growth of Israeli settlements, security disputes, and less conciliatory governments in Israel halted progress towards total Israeli withdrawal. See also Barak, Ehud; Netanyahu, Binyamin; Peres; Rabin, Yitzhak; Sharon, Ariel

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