The Palestinian enclaves are areas in the West Bank designated for Palestinians under a variety of unsuccessful U.S. and Israeli-led proposals to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The enclaves are often compared to the nominally self-governing black homelands created in apartheid-era South Africa, and are thus referred to as bantustans. They have been referred to figuratively as the Palestinian archipelago, among other terms. The de facto status in 2024 is that Israel controls all area outside these enclaves.
1967 Allon Plan and 1978 Drobles Plan
Some enclaves are entirely surrounded by the Israeli West Bank barrier, such as Bir Nabala and Qalandia.
Aerial view of Qalqilya
Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations Security Council in February 2020, describing the Trump plan as "Swiss Cheese".
The West Bank, so called due to its relation to the Jordan River, is the larger of the two Palestinian territories. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the Levant region of West Asia, it is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel to the south, west, and north. The territory has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
City of Bethlehem, West Bank
The Cave of the Patriarchs is one of the most famous holy sites in the region.
King Hussein flying over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem when it was under Jordanian control, 1965
City of Jericho, West Bank