A Historical Background

Abstract

This chapter is a succinct history of Palestine emphasising labour market conditions in the West Bank. A historical time frame brings into focus the continuity of colonial aggression against Palestine and the West Bank. Foremost, the British occupation of Palestine readied it for occupation by Zionist settlers (in addition to Israeli historians Sand [2009] and Pappe [2006], there is a litany of Arab and other historians to cite). The Zionist ethnic cleaning of Palestine is amply covered by many historians – including Jewish/non-Zionist sources (Rabkin 2016). This chapter also focuses on the West Bank’s relationship with the Jordanian regime. The findings show that the Jordanian regime has unequivocally drained the economy of the West Bank of its self-reliance mechanisms and with that its capacity to resist occupation by Israel at a later stage. This chapter situates the problem in an historical context for later analyses.