Knesset Bill Seeks to Replace ‘West Bank’ with ‘Judea and Samaria’

Knesset (Shutterstock) (Shutterstock)

‘Semantics are important because through incorrect terminology, the lie wins,’ said MK Simcha Rothman, who sponsored the bill.

By David Isaac, JNS

Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday approved a Knesset bill to replace the term “West Bank” with “Judea and Samaria” in Israeli government documents.

“Judea and Samaria are an inseparable part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people,” the bill states. “The most decisive events in our history took place in these regions, where our forefathers, prophets, sages and kings established their capital and kingdom.

“In contrast, the term ‘West Bank,’ which originated in a period of foreign rule, reflects a colonialist perspective that ignores the deep historical connection of the Jewish people to its land,” it adds.

Committee chairman Simcha Rothman, who introduced the bill, told JNS: “Semantics are important because through incorrect terminology, the lie wins. You have to describe reality correctly and tell the truth, and this is the first step to correcting the reality.”

“Judea and Samaria” is an ancient term. Judea derives from the name of the Kingdom of Judah, founded in 934 B.C.E., the source of the term “Jews.”

“Samaria” comes from the ancient city of Samaria, capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, an independent realm made up of the Hebrew tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh and Ephraim; now known as the 10 Lost Tribes, who were taken into captivity by Assyria around 720 BCE.

“West Bank,” although more common in modern parlance, has a recent provenance, having been coined by Jordan, which controlled the area for a short time (1948-1967), in an attempt to erase the area’s historic Jewish connection.

The Romans had an identical purpose when in 135 BCE, after defeating the Second Jewish Revolt, they renamed the Roman province of Judaea (an area larger than present day Judea) “Syria Palaestina” (from which the modern term “Palestine” comes). They wanted to sever the Jewish connection to the land. Palaestina referenced the Philistines, a people who lived along the coast but had disappeared by the 6th century BCE.

“As chairman of the Constitution Committee, we often get laws that replace terms with more ‘correct’ terms, and I thought that instead of chasing the culture of political correctness, it was time for us to chase after [our own history] for once,” Rothman told JNS.

His timing was also influenced by the change in administration in the United States. The “new administration and the new Congress [are] committed to the historical truth, that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” he said.

He noted parallel legislative efforts in the United States.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) have both introduced bills requiring “all official U.S. documents and materials to use the historically accurate term ‘Judea and Samaria’ instead of the ‘West Bank.’”

On Feb. 29, Tenney, in a statement on her website announcing her bill, said, “The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria.”

Cotton, announcing his bill on Feb. 4, said, “The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.”

There has been some debate in the coalition about Rothman’s bill. In Sunday’s committee discussion, Shlomo Karhi of the Likud Party, who serves as Communications Minister, suggested that it would be better for the coalition to focus on sovereignty rather than semantics.

“It’s dealing with something that we intend to solve in a completely different way,” said Karhi, according to Kan News.

Rothman told JNS however that the difference of opinion wouldn’t affect the bill’s passage.

“Even Karhi’s words did not come as an opposition to the law, but as a statement and a hope, which I myself join, that sovereignty will soon be applied and this law, like other laws that I am promoting myself, together with my colleagues in the Land of Israel Lobby, will become redundant,” he said.

Rothman said that he “definitely” expects the bill to pass.