Israel-Gaza war: What's going on in the West Bank?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
In recent weeks, and for obvious reasons, all eyes have been on Gaza. But more Palestinians live in the West Bank, the other Palestinian territory, and the area is critical forany chances of durable peace. Or to an expansion of the violence. So what is happening there right now? What is likely to happen? And does it entail more disaster or hold out the prospect of a settlement?
David Aaronovitch talks to Dr Anne Irfan, historian of the modern Middle East at University College London, Dalia Hatuqa, independent journalist specialising in Palestinian-Israeli affairs, Anshel Pfeffer, senior correspondent for Haaretz and Israel correspondent for The Economist, and Dr Louise Kettle, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Nottingham and associate fellow at RUSI.
Production: Alex Lewis, Kirsteen Knight, Sally Abrahams Production Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson Sound: Rod Farquhar Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | In recent weeks, and for obvious reasons, all eyes have been on Gaza. |
| 0:14.6 | But more Palestinians live in what is called the West Bank, |
| 0:18.1 | and the area is critical to any chances of a durable peace or to an |
| 0:23.3 | expansion of the violence. So what is happening there right now? What's likely to happen? And does |
| 0:30.2 | it entail more disaster or hold out the prospect of a settlement? Step into the briefing room |
| 0:36.1 | and together we'll find out. |
| 0:47.8 | The West Bank has a complicated history and to help us understand it, we're joined by Dr. Anirfan, a historian of the modern Middle East at University College London. |
| 0:52.9 | Anirfan, where is the West Bank? |
| 0:55.2 | And I suppose another way putting the question is, what is it the West Bank of? |
| 0:58.5 | It's technically the West Bank of the River Jordan. |
| 1:01.0 | It is an area of land between Israel and Jordan. |
| 1:05.4 | And it has since 1967 been under Israeli occupation, |
| 1:09.1 | but its population is majority Palestinian. |
| 1:11.5 | Okay. Now, where is it in relation to Gaza? |
| 1:14.7 | It is not contiguous with Gaza. It is north-east of Gaza, but the two territories are separated |
| 1:21.0 | by the state of Israel. Okay. Now, let's talk about how the West Bank as a thing was created. |
| 1:27.3 | I think we roughly know that the |
| 1:28.7 | UN recommended the setting up of two states, one Israeli Jewish state and one Arab. What was the |
| 1:35.0 | West Bank in that, supposed to be in that line up? So the UN partition plan was actually issued |
| 1:41.1 | in 1947 and it envisaged, as you said, two states. The West Bank, |
| 1:47.8 | as it's currently constructed in terms of its current borders, did not exist in any guise in |
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