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US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) has introduced legislation that would ban the term "West Bank" by the federal government and use the term "Judea and Samaria" instead.
On Thursday, Senator Cotton introduced a bill called the "Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel's Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria) Act." He explained that this new law would "align US policy language with the geographical and cultural significance of the region."
“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel,” Cotton stated.
U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney from New York, who is known for her strong support for Israel, also backed the bill. She said that using the names Judea and Samaria officially is important for "defending the integrity of the Jewish state."
“The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria, and at this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this,” Tenney said. “This bill reaffirms Israel’s rightful claim to its territory. I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”
US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has vowed to use the words Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank.
“I can’t say something I don’t believe. As you well know, I’ve never been willing to use the term ‘West Bank.’ There is no such thing. I speak of Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee told Israeli media outlet Arutz Sheva in an interview. “I tell people there is no ‘occupation.’ It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham.”
If the US federal government were to officially use Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank, it would be adopting terminology favored by Israel. This could show that US policy is moving closer to supporting Israel and might encourage more Jewish settlements in the area.
However, critics argue that changing the language could stir up more conflict in the Middle East, making it harder to achieve a two-state solution for peace between Israel and Palestine.
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, where Israel gained independence, Jordan began using the term "West Bank" for the region west of the Jordan River that it controlled. Since Israel took over this area during the Six-Day War in 1967, it has referred to it as Judea and Samaria.
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