From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishWest Bank, thethe West BankˈWest Bank, the the land west of the River Jordan and the Dead Sea between Israel and Jordan. In 1967, during the Arab-Israeli War, the Israelis took control of the West Bank, but Palestinian Arabs still consider it to be their land. Following the Oslo agreement of 1993, Israel began to remove its army from the West Bank and parts of the area became controlled by Palestinians. → see also Palestinian National Authority, the