West Bank
85
5.3
- proper noun
:
Cisjordania
- I wish that Americans understood more the conditions under which Palestinians are living in the West Bank and in Gaza.
- Palestinians in the West Bank
- West Bank and Israel
- West Bank and Gaza
They're the ones who are wrapping the West Bank with a, with a wall.
- They're the ones who are wrapping the West Bank with a, with a wall.
- One is I studied the economies of, you know, Jordan, West Bank, Gaza, Egypt, Morocco.
- All the kids in the West Bank all like, where does this end?
- It is what is now Israel, what is called the West Bank and Gaza.
- We have many settlements in the West Bank.
- It simply orders its Expeditionary force home, handing its trenches in the West Bank to Jordan's Arab Legion.
- And at some point in his presidency, he will support the annexation of of the West Bank.
- But there is something akin to apartheid in the governance by Israel in the West Bank, the occupied West Bank.
Examples
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It's a very narrow strip of land, but the the West Bank feels a long way away.
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Even though this took place in the West Bank, it was still a targeted attack against Hamas.
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Since 2007, the West Bank economy has taken off.
Academic text (2011) -
- The Americans are moving towards the West Bank.
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What was left was Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
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And now where we stand is that both Gaza and the West Bank have met on equal grounds.
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Also present was a United Nations official responsible for writing U.N. reports about Gaza and the West Bank.
Academic text (2015) -
It is what is now Israel, what is called the West Bank and Gaza.
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In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the West Bank from the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan.
Academic text (1999) -
The West Bank is home to many Palestinian communities and rich cultural heritage.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'west' + 'bank', so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes the bank on the west side of a river — a basic geographic meaning. However, as a proper name for a specific, politically charged territory with particular inhabitants and borders, the full geopolitical and cultural sense is not fully predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
West Bank is a very literal place name: west means the direction and bank means the side of a river, so it refers to 'the land on the west side of the Jordan River'. Today the name refers to that specific area where many Palestinians live and which is often in the news because of the long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.