Judea and Samaria Area
The Judea and Samaria Area (Hebrew: אֵזוֹר יְהוּדָה וְשׁוֹמְרוֹן, romanized: Ezor Yehuda VeShomron;[a] Arabic: يهودا والسامرة, romanized: Yahūda wa-s-Sāmara) is an administrative division administered by the state of Israel. It encompasses the entire West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but excludes East Jerusalem (see Jerusalem Law).[3][4] Its area is split into 165 Palestinian "islands" that are under total or partial civil administration by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and a contiguous area containing 230 Israeli settlements into which Israeli law is "pipelined".
This article is about an Israeli administrative division that overlaps the West Bank. For the biblical regions that serve as its namesake, see Judea and Samaria. For the biblical kingdoms, see Kingdom of Judah and Kingdom of Samaria.While its area is internationally recognized as a part of the Palestinian territories, some Israeli authorities group it together with the districts of Israel proper, largely for statistical purposes.[4][5][6] The term Judea and Samaria serves as another name for the West Bank in Israel.
Terminology
Biblical significance
The Judea and Samaria Area covers a portion of the territory designated by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria. Both names are tied to the ancient Israelite kingdoms: the former corresponds to part of the Kingdom of Judah, also known as the Southern Kingdom; and the latter corresponds to part of the Kingdom of Samaria, also known as the Northern Kingdom. In 1947, the terminology was noted by the United Nations in the Partition Plan for Palestine with the statement: "the boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River..."[7]
1967 Arab–Israeli War
In 1967, the Six-Day War saw Israeli forces capture the Jordanian-annexed West Bank, marking the beginning of the ongoing Israeli occupation of the territory. Following its capture, the right-wing Israelis began to refer to the territories by their Hebrew-language names and argued for their integration into Israel on historical, religious, nationalist, and security grounds.[8][9] In December 1967, the Israeli Military Governorate issued an order that stated: "the term 'Judea and Samaria region' shall be identical in meaning for all purposes to the term 'the West Bank Region'".[10] By early 1968, "Judea and Samaria" had been formally adopted in official usage.[11] However, the phrase was rarely used until 1977, when Menachem Begin, a proponent of extending Israel's sovereignty to the region, was elected as Israel's sixth prime minister.[12][11][13][14]
The name Judea, when used in Judea and Samaria, refers to all of the area to the south of Jerusalem, including Gush Etzion and Har Hevron. The name Samaria, on the other hand, refers to all of the area to the north of Jerusalem. In 1980, East Jerusalem (a part of the West Bank) was effectively annexed by Israel and has since been under civilian administration; it is thus excluded from the administrative structure of the Judea and Samaria Area.
The names "West Bank" (הַגָּדָה הַמַּעֲרָבִית, HaGadah HaMaʽaravit) or, alternatively, "the Territories" (השטחים, HaShtahim) are also current in Israeli usage. Generally, preference for one term over the other indicates the speaker's position on the Israeli political spectrum. Left-wingers, who take the view that the territory should be evacuated under a peace agreement, prefer "West Bank"; conversely, right-wingers, who take the view that the territory should come under Israeli administration permanently, advocate the usage of "Judea and Samaria" (similar to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute in Northern Ireland).