Search

US Senator introduces bill to ban the term ‘West Bank’

The law would require all official US documents to use the historically accurate term ‘Judea and Samaria.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) introduced a bill that would ban the term “West Bank.”

Instead the bill, if it becomes a law, would require all official US documents to use the historically accurate term “Judea and Samaria.”

The full name of the bill is 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.

“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria go back thousands of years. The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel,” Cotton added.

The legislation was introduced in the House by Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-NY).

“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,” said Congresswoman Tenney.

“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.”

Read  House passes annual defense bill with hundreds of millions for Israel

Anticipating support from the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald Trump, leaders of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are laying the groundwork for the possible extension of Israeli sovereignty to parts of the territory.

Briefing reporters on Wednesday, Israel Ganz, head of the Yesha Council, suggested that after achieving normalization with other Arab countries, discussions on sovereignty in Judea and Samaria could resume.

The Yesha Council is an umbrella organization for all the communities in Judea and Samaria, representing the interests of around 500,000 Israelis.

“We anticipate more countries joining the normalization process with Israel,” Ganz said, without naming specific states. Israel and Saudi Arabia were moving closer to normalization before the diplomacy was disrupted by Hamas’s October 7 attack.