ABSTRACT
Jordan's acquisition of the West Bank as a result of the 1947-49 Palestine war and the 1949 Israel-Jordanian Armistice Agreement marked the beginning of its separate existence as both a geographic and political unit. King Abdullah's Arab Legion initially took control of the West Bank during May 1948, assisted by Egyptian forces in the south and Iraqi troops in the north. The transformation of the West Bank from an integral part of Palestine to a western province of the Hashemite Kingdom was traumatic. During the mandatory era, the towns and villages of the West Bank had developed close economic, political and social ties with the rest of Arab Palestine. The bitterness of many Palestinians toward the Jordanian government was exacerbated by the disparity in economic conditions between East and West. Initially the West Bank was economically more advanced although it lost its advantage by the 1960s.
