A report on West Bank, East Jerusalem, State of Palestine and Israel

Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the territory of former British Palestine, now encompassing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (the Palestinian territories) as well as Israel.

In this combined area,, Palestinians constituted 49 percent of all inhabitants, encompassing the entire population of the Gaza Strip (1.865 million), the majority of the population of the West Bank (approximately 2,785,000 versus some 600,000 Israeli settlers, which includes about 200,000 in East Jerusalem), and almost 21 percent of the population of Israel proper as part of its Arab citizens.

Followed by the PLO's 1988 proclamation of a State of Palestine, these developments served to further reinforce the Palestinian national identity.

The city straddles the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank; both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.

Israel controls the entire city and maintains its primary governmental institutions there while the Palestinian National Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization ultimately foresee it as the seat of power for the State of Palestine.

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured and later annexed by Jordan.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, Munaẓẓamat at-Taḥrīr al-Filasṭīniyyah) is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and statehood over the territory of former Mandatory Palestine, in opposition to the State of Israel.

It is headquartered in the city of Al-Bireh in the West Bank, and is recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by over 100 countries that it has diplomatic relations with.

As the official recognized government of the de jure State of Palestine, it has enjoyed observer status at the United Nations (UN) since 1974.

In 1988, however, the PLO officially endorsed a two-state solution, contingent on terms such as making East Jerusalem capital of the Palestinian state and giving Palestinians the right of return to land occupied by Palestinians prior to 1948, as well as the right to continue armed struggle until the end of "The Zionist Entity."

The Palestinian Authority was formed in 1994, pursuant to the Gaza–Jericho Agreement between the PLO and the government of Israel, and was intended to be a five-year interim body.

East Jerusalem was excluded from the Accords.

The State of Palestine has become recognized by 138 nations and since November 2012, the United Nations voted to recognize the State of Palestine as a non-member UN observer state.

The PA was envisioned as an interim organization to administer a limited form of Palestinian self-governance in the Areas A and B in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a period of five years, during which final-status negotiations would take place.

Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967.

After the treaty with Egypt, Israel effectively annexed the Golan Heights into its Northern District through the Golan Heights Law, and brought the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under the Israeli Civil Administration.

Despite the dissolution of the military government, and in line with Egyptian demands, the term Occupied Arab Territories had remained in use, referring to the West Bank (including East Jerusalem, which Israel effectively annexed in 1980), the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights.

From 1999 to early 2013, the term "Occupied Palestinian Territory" was used to refer to territories that the interim governing body of the State of Palestine, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), controlled in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995.

Among the notable outcomes of the Oslo Accords was the creation of the Palestinian National Authority, which was tasked with the responsibility of conducted limited Palestinian self-governance over parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; and the international acknowledgement of the PLO as Israel's partner in permanent-status negotiations about any remaining issues revolving around the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Bilateral dialogue stems from questions related to the international border between Israel and a future Palestinian state: negotiations for this subject are centred around Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem, Israel's maintenance of control over security following the establishment of Palestinian autonomy, and the Palestinian right of return.

While Peres had limited settlement construction at the request of US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, Netanyahu continued construction within existing Israeli settlements, and put forward plans for the construction of a new neighborhood, Har Homa, in East Jerusalem.

Prior to hostilities in 1948, Palestine (modern-day West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel) had been under the Mandate for Palestine control of the British Empire, which captured it from the Ottomans in 1917.

Jordanian forces remained in most positions they held in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Old City.

The decision forced King Hussein to relinquish his claim to speak for the Palestinian people during peace negotiations and to recognize an independent Palestinian state that is independent of Jordan.

The corpus separatum was one of the main issues of the Lausanne Conference of 1949, besides the borders of Israel and the question of the Palestinian right of return.

The Partition Plan was not implemented, being firstly rejected by Palestinian and other Arab leaders and then overtaken by the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which left Jerusalem split between Israel (West Jerusalem) and Jordan (East Jerusalem).

Presently, there is generally wide international support for the view that Jerusalem should be a dual capital, with an even split between Israel and the State of Palestine, although exact positions are divided.

On 27 June 1967, it extended its law and jurisdiction to 17,600 acres of formerly Jordanian territory, including all of Jordanian Jerusalem and a portion of the nearby West Bank; the area is now known as East Jerusalem, and widely referred to as occupied Jerusalem.

The Israeli West Bank barrier, comprising the West Bank Wall and the West Bank fence, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank.

While the barrier was initially presented as a temporary security measure at a time of heightened tensions, it has since been associated with a future political border between Israel and the State of Palestine.

The barrier runs partly along or near the 1949 Jordanian–Israeli armistice line ("Green Line") and partly through the Israeli-occupied West Bank diverging eastward from the armistice line by up to 20 km to include on the western side several of the areas with concentrations of highly populated Israeli settlements, such as East Jerusalem, the Ariel Bloc (Ariel, Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Immanuel etc.), Gush Etzion, Givat Ze'ev, Oranit, and Maale Adumim.