Areas A, B, and C

What it is

The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, signed in Washington on Sept. 28, 1995 and known as Oslo II, cut the West Bank into three zones. ¹ Article XI defines them by color on an attached map. Area A is the populated areas shaded brown on map No. 1. Area B is the populated areas shaded yellow, plus the built-up areas of a list of hamlets in an appendix. Area C is everything else, defined in the text as "areas of the West Bank outside Areas A and B," which, apart from the questions saved for permanent status talks, "will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction in accordance with this Agreement." ¹

The zones divide two jobs, security and civil administration, and they divide them differently in each zone. ¹

In Area A, the elected Palestinian Council assumes the powers and responsibilities for internal security and public order once Israeli forces complete their redeployment in that district. ¹ In Area B, Israeli military forces redeploy completely and the Palestinian Police take responsibility for public order for Palestinians, but Israel keeps what the agreement calls "the overriding responsibility for security for the purpose of protecting Israelis and confronting the threat of terrorism." ¹ The Palestinian Police were to run 25 stations and posts in Area B, and uniformed movement outside those places had to be cleared in advance through a joint District Coordination Office. ¹ In Area C, Israel agreed only to transfer "civil powers and responsibilities not relating to territory." ¹ Planning, zoning, and land stayed with Israel. In Areas A and B, planning and zoning went to the Council in the first phase. ¹

Israel kept defense against external threats everywhere, including the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, and overall security for Israelis and for the settlements, which the agreement defines in the West Bank as the settlements in Area C. ¹

The three-zone map had an expiration date written into it. Further redeployments were to happen in three phases, each six months apart, "to be completed within 18 months from the date of the inauguration of the Council." ¹ Permanent status negotiations were to start no later than May 4, 1996, covering Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, and borders. ¹ The whole transitional period was not to exceed five years from the May 4, 1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement. ¹ The U.S. State Department's own summary of the process describes the Palestinian Authority as set to assume governing responsibilities over a five-year period. ²

The World Bank, reviewing the arrangement two decades on, wrote that the transfer of Area C "should have been completed by 1997" and "has not been implemented as envisaged." ⁴

What did happen was piecemeal. The Wye River Memorandum, signed in Washington on Oct. 23, 1998 with the United States as witness, moved 13 percent from Area C, 1 percent of it into Area A and 12 percent into Area B, and converted 14.2 percent of Area B into Area A. ³ A third phase on the same schedule, listed in the memorandum's timeline as 5 percent from C to B, 1 percent from C to A, and 7.1 percent from B to A, was written down at Wye as well. ³ By the World Bank's accounting, Area C is about 61 percent of the West Bank, Area A 18 percent, and Area B 21 percent. ⁴ The UN's humanitarian office puts Area C at over 60 percent. ⁵

Why it still matters

Most West Bank news turns on which letter a given piece of ground carries. A demolition order, a building permit, a settlement expansion plan, an army raid on a city all run through whichever authority Oslo II assigned that job in that zone. ¹

The land at stake is Area C. The World Bank estimated that lifting restrictions on Palestinian activity in Area C would add at least $2.2 billion a year in value added, equal to 23 percent of 2011 Palestinian GDP, rising to $3.4 billion and 35 percent once indirect effects are counted. ⁴ The UN's 2014 fact sheet counted roughly 300,000 Palestinians living in Area C across about 530 residential areas, 241 of them entirely inside it, alongside 341,000 Israeli settlers in some 135 settlements and about 100 outposts. ⁵ It found 70 percent of Area C falls inside the boundaries of settlement regional councils, and approximately 1 percent has been planned for Palestinian development. ⁵ In 2013, 565 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished for lack of Israeli permits, displacing 805 people. ⁵

Both of the strongest arguments come out of the same document. Israel's case is textual. The agreement assigns Israel overriding security responsibility in Area B, overall responsibility for Israelis and for the settlements, and all defense against external threats, in language the PLO signed. ¹ The Palestinian case is textual too. The same agreement says Area C "will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction," on a clock that ran out in the 1990s. ¹

The Israeli side of the arrangement has also been changing shape. In December 2022, Udi Dekel of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies wrote about moving the Civil Administration and COGAT out from under the defense minister and the military commander, who he noted "is in practice the sovereign" in a territory governed under the laws of occupation. ⁶ Dekel counted roughly 400,000 Israelis and 280,000 Palestinians in Area C, and argued the change turns slow annexation into accelerated annexation. ⁶ On Feb. 23, 2023, an agreement gave Bezalel Smotrich, serving as both finance minister and a minister inside the Defense Ministry, authority over settlement planning and construction, land allocation, enforcement against illegal construction, and the Higher Planning Committee, with the defense minister retaining a right to intervene in certain cases. ⁷

Our view: the 18-month deadline in Article XI came with no consequence attached for missing it, which is most of the reason it was missed. ¹ Israel's security responsibilities under the agreement are real and written down, and so is the Area C transfer that the World Bank says should have been finished by 1997 and was not. ¹⁴

The words you'll hear

Area A. The populated Palestinian areas where the Palestinian Authority holds both civil administration and internal security, roughly 18 percent of the West Bank. ¹⁴

Area B. Palestinian civil administration with security split: Palestinian Police handle public order for Palestinians, Israel keeps overriding responsibility for protecting Israelis and confronting terrorism. About 21 percent. ¹⁴

Area C. Full Israeli security and civil control, including planning and zoning, and about 61 percent of the West Bank. Oslo II said it would be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction. ¹⁴

Further redeployment (FRD). The three scheduled six-month steps by which Israeli forces were to pull back and Area C was to shrink, meant to finish 18 months after the Palestinian Council was seated. ¹

Permanent status issues. The questions Oslo II expressly left for later talks starting no later than May 4, 1996: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, and borders. ¹

DCO. District Coordination Office, the joint Israeli-Palestinian body through which Palestinian police movement outside their assigned Area B stations had to be cleared. ¹

Civil Administration. The Israeli body that runs planning, construction, and land registration in Area C, historically under the military commander and, since 2023, substantially under a civilian minister in the Defense Ministry. ⁶⁷