User:MeteorMaker/Judea and Samaria
Summary
[edit]Usage of "Samaria" contravenes 3 key Wikipedia policies, "Naming Conventions", UNDUE weight and Neutral Point of View.
| WP policy / guideline | "Samaria" (and the combined term "Judea and Samaria") violates this policy/guideline because: | Evidence that supports this view | Evidence that supports the opposite view |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naming conventions (geographic names) | Lacks the required wide acceptance for being presented as a valid alternative to "the West Bank". | Wikipedia's procedure for determining if a toponym is widely accepted in the English-speaking world was applied by User:MeteorMaker [1] and User:CasualObserver'48 [2].
Details of our findings (points 1-3): |
No reliable sources have been presented that "Samaria" is widely accepted as a modern toponym in the English-speaking world. |
| 1) All major online dictionaries and encyclopedias present "Samaria" as an ancient term and none as one in modern use. Most state that the term has been superseded by "the West Bank". |
For fuller quotes and more details, see table (B) below |
None | |
| 2) Compared to "the West Bank", "Samaria" is a minority term on Google Scholar and Google Books. It does not satisfy WP:NCGN's requirements: If the name is used at least three times as often as any other, in referring to the period, it is widely accepted. |
|
Rare. | |
| 3) "Samaria" is extremely rare in news media in the English-speaking world, which unanimously prefer the term "the West Bank". | Extremely rare. | ||
| 4) "Samaria" is extremely rare on official government sites in the English-speaking world. |
|
Extremely rare | |
| 5) Several reliable sources state this as a fact. |
See also table (B) below. |
None | |
| Undue weight | "Samaria" is an extreme minority toponym relative to the West Bank in the English-speaking world. | Shown above.
See also table (B) below. Even on Israeli sites, "Judea and Samaria" is a decidely minor term, with only one sixth of the Google hits for "West Bank" [11][12]. |
No reliable sources have been presented that support the view that the toponym "Samaria" should be given equal prominence despite its extreme minority status relative to the West Bank. |
| Neutral point of view | Terms peculiar to one of the parties in an ongoing territorial conflict are by definition not NPOV. "Samaria" (and the combined term "Judea and Samaria") have been shown to be Israel-specific terminology and rarely if ever used by neutral parties.
It is uncontested that the terms are controversial and rejected by the other side in the conflict. |
|
No reliable sources (beyond some scattered anecdotal evidence) have been presented that the term is used by anybody else than Israelis or (the much smaller group) people affiliated with Zionist organizations. |
Modern usage sources
[edit]As requested by Jayjg and CanadianMonkey, here are all the sources that have been presented in this discussion and that state anything about the modern usage of the toponym:
| Source | Samaria defined as: | Samaria is in regular mainstream English use | Samaria is in partisan or non-English use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia | "Central region, ancient Palestine. [...] it was bounded by Galilee to the north, Judaea to the south, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Jordan River to the east. It corresponds roughly to the northern portion of the modern West Bank territory." [17] | As historical toponym | "The [West Bank] territory, excluding East Jerusalem, is also known within Israel by its biblical names, Judaea and Samaria." |
| Encarta | "Ancient city and state in Palestine, located north of present-day Jerusalem, east of the Mediterranean Sea. [...] In modern times, a sect of Samaritans practices a religion [...] near modern Nābulus, in the area now known as the West Bank." | As historical toponym | No indication |
| Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names | "Samaria, West Bank. The central region of ancient Palestine and its capital, now called Sabasṭiyah." | As historical toponym | No indication |
| Columbia Encyclopedia | "Ancient city, central Palestine, on a hill NW of Nablus (Shechem). The site is now occupied by a village, Sabastiyah (West Bank)." | As historical toponym | "Israelis who regard the [West Bank] area as properly Jewish territory often refer to it by the biblical names of Judaea and Samaria." |
| Oxford English Dictionary | No separate article. On "Samaritans", it says: "Although the kingdom of Samaria vanished long ago, the Samaritans still survive today as perhaps the smallest ethnic minority in the world." | No indication | No indication |
| Ian S Lustick: For the Land and the Lord, 1988 | "Judea and Samaria are the biblical names for the general areas south and north of Jerusalem. (respectively) Historically, they include substantial portions of pre-1967 Israel, but not the Jordan Valley or the Benyamina district (both within the West Bank). " | No indication | "For political purposes, and despite the geographical imprecision involved, the annexationalist camp in Israel prefers to refer to the area between the green line and the Jordan River not as the West Bank, but as Judea and Samaria." (p.205 n.4) [[18] |
| Anthony H. Cordesman: Arab-Israeli Military Forces in an Era of Asymmetric Wars. Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, D.C.) Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 | Minority term for "the northern part of the West Bank" | No indication | "From April to December 2002, there were 17 suicide attacks directed from the northern part of the West Bank, referred to by some as Samaria." (p.90) |
| Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht. To Rule Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, 1996 | Minority terms, describing "the historical core of the ancient Jewish nation" | No indication | "Naming is rarely innocent; choice of place names carries meanings, forwards claims. To those who would trade land for peace, this is the “West Bank.” The military authorities who administer these lands, for whom they are mainly a troublesome job, call them “the territories“. To the religious nationalist settlers they are Judea and Samaria (Yehudah and Shomron in Hebrew), the historical core of the ancient Jewish nation." (p. 152) [19] |
| Alfred J. Kolatch. Inside Judaism: The Concepts, Customs, and Celebrations of the Jewish People, Jonathan David Company, 2006 | Minority term for "the West Bank" | No indication | "[...] the building of Jewish communities in the West Bank – or Judea and Samaria, as Jews refer to it – commenced." (p.268)
Comment: By far the broadest group any of the sources names as users of the terms. -MM |
| Allan Gerson. Israel, the West Bank and International Law, Routledge, 1978 | "Historical and geographical designation of the West Bank", imposed "by official fiat" | No indication | "On February 29, the popular term, ‘West Bank’, was by official fiat, abandoned in favour of ‘Judea and Samaria’ – the historical and geographical designation of the region and one not without nationalist and religious overtones of association with the Jewish people." (p.111) |
| David Weisburd. Jewish Settler Violence, Penn State Press, 1985 | "The West Bank" | "Generally called the “Occupied West Bank” in the United States" | "All but one of these outposts were established in the “Occupied West Bank”, as it is generally called in the United States, though the settlers who live in these areas prefer to use the term “Judea and Samaria” when speaking of the region. The latter term emphasizes the connection of their settlements to the ancient Land of Israel" (p.9) |
| Robert I. Friedman. Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement, Random House, 1992 | "Biblical names for the West Bank" | "Known as the West Bank" | * "[...] Judea and Samaria are part of the Land of Israel, said Drobles [cochairman of the settlement division of the World Zionist Organization], using the Biblical names for the West Bank." (p. xxiv)
|
| Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Dawoud Sudqi El Alami. The Palestine-Israeli Conflict: A Beginner's Guide, Oneworld Publications, 2001 [20] | "The West Bank" | No indication | "The Israelis insisted on referring to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria". (p.161) |
| Thomas, Evan (Nov 1995). "Can Peace Survive?". Newsweek | "Biblical names for the West Bank" | No indication | "The religious settlers in the occupied territories believe that God gave them the West Bank - which they call by the Biblical names Judea and Samaria - and that no temporal leader can give the Promised Land away." [21] |
| Ian Lustick, The Riddle of Nationalism: The Dialectic of Religion and Nationalism in the Middle East, Logos, Vol.1, No-3, Summer 2002 | Term for “the West Bank” that was imposed by Likud in Israeli news reports | No indication | "The terms “occupied territory” or “West Bank” were forbidden in news reports. Television and radio journalists were banned from initiating interviews with Arabs who recognized the PLO as their representative." (pp.18-44) |
| Ian S. Lustick, ‘'Israel's Dangerous Fundamentalists'’, in Foreign Policy, No. 68 Fall 1987 | "The West Bank" | No indication | " Even as Gush Emunim seeks ways to institutionalize itself and its program, it already has created powerful myths for contemporary Israeli society. These myths, and the attitudes and policies they encourage, will mold Middle Eastern affairs for decades. Israelis now entering the army were born after the 1967 war. For them, the West Bank is Judaea and Samaria." (pp. 118-139 p.120) |
| Elie Podeh, Arab-Israeli Conflict in Israeli History Textbooks, 1948-2000, Information Age Publishing 2000 | Term that superseded "The West Bank" in Israeli textbooks | No indication | "The narrative in the old textbooks was influenced by the exhilarating impact of Israel’s victory. [...] Similarly, the term West Bank was superceded by the terms Judea and Samaria, which emphasize the historical link of these areas to Jewish national history." (p.113) |
| Willard A. Beling, Middle East Peace Plans, Routledge, 1986 | "Biblical terms used by Likud for the West Bank" | No indication | "Likud’s position on the West Bank has never been in doubt. It is clear cut and unambiguous. Judea and Samaria (the biblical terms used by Likud for the West Bank) are integral parts of Israel and are not negotiable in a peace settlement." (p.17) |
| Gadi Wolfsfeld, Media and Political Conflict: News from the Middle East, Cambridge University Press, 1997 | "Historic biblical terms for the West Bank" used politically by the Israeli government | "Known to the rest of the world as the West Bank" (p.82) 'The foreign press consistently refers to these lands as “occupied territories”' (p.162) | "Use of the terms Judaea and Samaria, the biblical names for the West Bank, also makes a political statement about Israel’s claims over those lands. When Menachem Begin became Prime Minister in 1977, he insisted that the government news media (radio and television use these terms; when the Labor party against took power in 1992, the broadcast authorities went back to using the more neutral term of “the territories”. (p.162) |
| Laura Zittrain Eisenberg, Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace; Patterns, Problems, Possibilities, Indiana University Press, 1998 | "Biblical terms for the West Bank" (preferred by the Likud) | No indication | "Unlike their rivals in the Labor Party, however, Likud leaders maintained an ideological commitment to holding on to Judea and Samaria (their preferred Biblical terms for the West Bank) conquered in the 1967 war." (p.31) |
| Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt, Jewish Civilization: The Jewish Historical Experience in a Comparative Perspective, SUNY Press, 1992 | "Term taken from Mandatory times", "officially adopted to replace West Bank" | No indication | "Although there was no alteration of the legal status of the West Bank – of Judea and Samaria (a term taken from Mandatory times and officially adopted to replace West Bank or the territories) – despite vocal demands by extreme right-wing groups for the imposition of Israeli law in those areas or their outright annexation." (p.207) |
| Myron J. Aronoff, Israeli Visions and Divisions: Cultural Change and Political Conflict, Transaction Publishers, 1991 | "Biblical terms for the West Bank" (introduced by the Likud) | No indication | "[...] “Judea and Samaria”, the biblical terms that the Likud government succeeded in substituting for what had previously been called by many the West Bank, the occupied territories, or simply the territories. The successful gaining of the popular acceptance of these terms was a prelude to gaining popular acceptance of the government’s settlement policies." (p.10) |
| Robert Zelnick, "Israel's Unilaterialism: Beyond Gaza", Hoover Press, 2006 | Minority term for "The West Bank" | Not used in most of the world | "[...] Judea and Samaria, what most of the world refers to as the West Bank." (p.1) |
| Mark A. Tessler, "A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" | "Biblical designations for the West Bank" | No indication | "[Israelis committed to permanent retention of the West Bank and Gaza] referred to the former territory by its Biblical designations of Judea and Samaria, terms employed for the deliberate purpose of asserting that the territorial claims of Jews predate those of Arabs, and also to create a subtle but important symbolic distinction between East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank." (p.466) |
| Palestinefacts.org (Israeli website) | "Terms used up to about 1950" | "Near total exclusion" | "[...] the phrase "West Bank" has stuck, and is used to the near total exclusion of any other. [...] Judea and Samaria have been known by these names for unbroken centuries, and were registered as such on official documents and maps, by international institutions and in authoritative reference books right up to about 1950." [22] |
| Haaretz (Israeli newspaper) | "Samaria is the biblical name for the northern West Bank." [23] | No indication | No indication |
| yNetNews.com (Israeli website) | "Judea and Samaria are the Biblical names for the areas comprising the West Bank. Samaria refers to northern area and Judea refers to the southern area, with Jerusalem approximately in the center. [...] The West Bank today has a population of approximately 2.3 million Palestinians and close to 400,000 Israeli settlers." [24] | No indication | No indication |
| David Singer "Myanmar and Israel - Fighting the Semantic Wars", International Analyst Network (website) 2007 [25] | "The area captured by Israel from Jordan in 1967" | "The international media have adopted the term “West Bank” without demur in virtually every editorial piece they publish." | "Only some right wing Jewish media in Israel and abroad now consistently and repeatedly use “Judea and Samaria”." |
| William Safire, "Mideastisms", New York Times Jan 15 2006 [26] | "Biblical names, preferred by Sharon" | "West Bank [has] won that terminological battle" | "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon preferred to refer to land in dispute west of the Jordan River by biblical names: Judea and Samaria, evoking Hebrew origins; Israeli diplomats long tried "administered territories." Palestinians call it the West Bank and have won that terminological battle." |
| Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg, "INTERPRETATIONS OF JEWISH TRADITION ON DEMOCRACY, LAND, AND PEACE", Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2 October 2000 [27] | Biblical names for the combined East Jerusalem - West Bank area | No indication | "These areas [East Jerusalem and the West Bank], known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria (based on their biblical names), include many biblical sites such as Hebron, Bethlehem, Beth El, Shechem". |
| "Extra!: West Bank" CNN Library/CNN Student News [28] | Samaria: biblical name for the northern West Bank region | No indication | "Israelis often refer to the northern West Bank region by its biblical name of Samaria." |
| Colin Shindler, A History of Modern Israel, Cambridge University Press, 2008 | No indication | "Begin was happy to castigate the media and the intelligentsia for their views, real and imaginary, and their use of politically incorrect language. Israeli television was now instructed to use “Judea and Samaria’ for the administered territories, annexation became ‘incorporation’ and the Green Line suddenly disappeared from maps of Israel and the West Bank’. (p.174) | |
| Eli Avraham, Behind Media Marginality: : Coverage of Social Groups and Places in the Israeli Press, Lexington Books, 2003 | "Local terminology", "preferred by the settlers to describe the geographical area of settlement" | No indication | '‘The reluctance of the editors to use the group’s preferred terminology is apparent in regard to the term “Judea and Samaria,” preferred by the settlers to describe the geographical area of settlement. The journalists usually referred to this area as “the territories” or “the West Bank.” A reporter for Ha’aretz explained that the paper uses the term “West Bank” in order to maintain objectivity. The journalists interviewed stated that they used their own terminology in order to avoid manipulation by the group covered. However, it seems that it is the social-ideological distance from the group that determines the journalists’ unwillingness to use local terminology." (p.119) |
| Stuart Cohen, Democratic Societies and Their Armed Forces; : Israel in Comparative Context, Taylor & Francis 2000 | No indication | "No less meaningful was Gush Emunim’s ideological assault on the Israeli public agenda, way of thinking, cultural code and terminology. Particularly effective was its double talk. Toward their own religious-nationalistic ‘constituency’, members of the Gush employed the primordial symbols of ‘land and blood’. Towards the secularists they used the rhetoric of ‘pioneering settlement’ and ‘security’. The secular hard-liners, or ‘hawkish’-oriented elites, never possessed such an arsenal of emotional terms of abundance of associations as did their religious partners. The ‘West Bank’ became ‘Judea and Samaria’, or ‘Yesha’ – which is not just an acronym for ‘Judea, Samaria, and Gaza Strip’, but also literally means ‘salvation’ or’redemption’." (pp.235-236) | |
| Gideon Aran,‘'Jewish Zionist Fundamentalism: The Block of the Faithful in Israel (Gush Enumin),'’, American Academy of Arts and Sciences University of Chicago Press, 1994 (pp.265-344, p.291, p.337) | No indication | ‘The importance of changing names in the process of conquering territory is well known. Assimilation of the name “Judea and Samaria” in normal and official language, as well as in jargon, attests to G(ush)E(numin)’s political and cultural achievements.' | |
| John Davis, Presidential Policies and the Road to the Second Iraq War: From Forty One to Forty Three, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006 | "The Likud Party’s terms for the West Bank" | Tom Delay, former member of the United States House of Representatives | The previous April (2001), House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) had told a Jewish group in Washington that Israel should keep Judea and Samaria, using the Likud Party’s terms for the West Bank.’ (p.179) |
| Shlomo Gazit, Trapped Fools: Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories, Routledge, 2003 | Officially adopted term for the ‘West Bank’ in 1968, "hardly used until 1977" | No indication | 'The Likud ideology [...] was fundamentally different from the Mapai ideology, which later spawned the Labor party. While Mapai believed in pragmatism, and always preferred action to rhetoric, verbiage and symbols, the Revisionists were avid followers of the ‘majestic’ way of doing things, emphasizing the importance of symbols, pride and honor. Thus, for instance, the Likud Government was not satisfied with the name ‘Administered Territories’. Even though the name ‘Judea and Samaria’ had been officially adopted as early as the beginning of 1968 instead of the ‘West Bank’, it has hardly been used until 1977. (p.162) |
| James L. Gelvin, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War, Cambridge University Press, 2005 | No indication | "By calling the territory “Judea and Samaria,” Israelis are calling attention to their Biblical roots in the land and their right to inhabit or control it.' (p.10) | |
| Alan Dowty, Israel/Palestine, Polity Press, 2005 | Historic Jewish designation for the occupied territories | No indication | "Hawks used the historic Jewish designation – “Judea and Samaria” – for the occupied territories and advocated their integration into Israel on historical, nationalist, and security grounds.’ (p.121) |
| Benny Morris, Palestinians on the Right Side of History, NY Times, August 24, 2005 [29] | "The hilly central spine [of the Holy Land], between Ishtamua (present-day Samua), Hebron and Shechem (present-day Nablus)" | "The rest of the world calls [it] the West Bank" | "This stretch, with Jerusalem at its center, comprises the area that the Bible and many Israelis now refer to as Judea and Samaria, and the rest of the world calls the West Bank." |
| Interview with Prime Minister Menachem Begin on CBS television- 21 June 1982 [30] | The West Bank | [Non-Israelis] call [it] the West Bank | Mr. Herman: "Tomorrow you meet with President Reagan. One of the subjects I'm sure is going to come up is the question of negotiations for the autonomy of the Palestinians, of whom the largest part still remains within your control, in what you call Judea and Samaria, and what the rest of the world calls the West Bank."
PM Begin: "What we call properly Judea and Samaria, others mistakenly call the West Bank. The West Bank is the whole territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean..." |
| PBS Online Newshour: UNSETTLING GAZA August 17, 200 [31] | The West Bank | "The rest of the world knows [it] as the West Bank" | JONATHAN MILLER: "Unilateral disengagement from 21 Jewish settler communities in Gaza and from four in what the Israelis call northern Samaria and the rest of the world knows as the West Bank, the remaining 116 settlements there, unaffected by today's evacuations elsewhere. The pictures are heartbreaking." |
| Robert Zelnick, The Gaza Pullout, Hoover Digest No 4/2005 [32] | Samaria: Israeli term for the northern West Bank | No indication | "A symbolic four settlements, with only a few hundred total residents, were in the northern West Bank many Israelis call Samaria." |
| Zionism and Israel - Encyclopedic Dictionary (The Zionism and Israel Center) [33] | "Samaria' - The northern area of the West bank of the Jordan river that includes the ancient home of the Samaritans and modern Nablus, Jenin, Qalqilieh and Tulkarm. " | "Historic term", "no longer used to refer to the modern region" | "This historic term assumed political significance after 1967. It is used by the Israeli government, Zionists and Israelis, to refer to the modern region, but it is no longer used by others, who prefer the Jordanian term for the entire portion of the land occupied by Israel - "West Bank" which they coined after World War II." |
| Emma Playfair, "International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories: Two Decades of Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip", Oxford University Press, 1992 | Name that the Israeli military government ordered be used instead of "West Bank" | "With the advent of the Likud government in 1977 [...] the term ‘West Bank’ fell into disuse and ‘Judea’ and ‘Samaria’, the only officially recognized designations, began to be used by the [Israeli]public as neutral terms." (p.197) | "[...] even the West Bank itself has been renamed ‘Judea and Samaria’, and the major town of Nablus, Shekhem." (p.11) '‘Although Israel has not formally annexed the Occupied Territories . .there are reactionary forces in Israel that lay claim to the territories – especially the West Bank, renamed Judea and Samaria – on politico-religious grounds." (p.464) "On 17 December 1967, the Israeli military government issued an order stating that “the term “Judea and Samaria region” shall be identical in meaning for all purposes . .to the term “the West Bank Region”. This change in terminology, which has been followed in Israeli official statements since that time, reflected a historic attachment to these areas and rejection of a name that was seen as implying Jordanian sovereignty over them." (p.41) |
| Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, Harvey Sicherman, "The Power of Projections: How Maps Reflect Global Politics and History", Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 | "Jordan’s former West Bank" | "Mapmakers who were ideologically neutral generally referred to “occupied territory” and maintained the term “West Bank”." (p.37) | "[Cartographers] who were sympathetic to Israel labelled the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and Sinai as “administered territories,” and used the phrase “Judea and Samaria” for Jordan’s former West Bank. They also included all of Jerusalem within Israeli territory. (p.37) |
| Ran HaCohen, ‘'Influence of the Middle East Peace Process on the Hebrew Language'’ in Michael G. Clyne (ed.) Undoing and Redoing Corpus Planning | (Biblical) Hebrew geographical terms, "officially adopted and successfully promoted by the right wing governments since 1977" | "In between [Israeli] left and right fall terms like “the (West) Bank” and the neutral “Territories.”" | "During a short period immediately after the 1967-war, the official term employed was ‘the Occupied Territories’ (ha-shetahim ha-kevushim). It was soon replaced by ‘the Administered Territories’ (ha-shetahim ha-muhzakim) and then by the (biblical) Hebrew geographical terms “Judea and Samaria”. The latter were officially adopted and successfully promoted by the right wing governments (since 1977) and are still the official terms in use." (pp.385-414, p.397) |
| Ira Sharkansky, Ambiguity, Coping, and Governance; Israeli Experiences in Politics, Religion, and Policymaking, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999 | "Ancient Hebrew terms" | "West Bank [is] more neutral" | "Should places be named according to the ancient Hebrew terms of Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria), which are favorites of the Israeli right wing; Palestine as preferred by Arabs; or the more neutral West Bank (i.e., the geographical designation as the west bank of the Jordan River)?" (p.137) |
| Itamar Rabinovich,Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs, 1948-2003, Princeton University Press, 2004 | "Biblical term" | “West Bank” is neutral in Israeli politics | "Moreover, Israel’s politics were altered by the powerful wave of messianic-mystical nationalism generation by Israel’s acqusition of Judea and Samaria (In the coded language of Israeli politics, the term “West Bank” is neutral but the biblical term “Judea and Samaria” expresses a claim to the heartlands of Jewish history.) |
| Valerie Wiener, Power Communications: Positioning Yourself for High Visibility, NYU Press, 1994 | "The territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the Six Day War of 1967" | "The West Bank is a politically neutral term for the territory" (p.63) | "Those who refer to it as Judea and Samaria are saying, through their choice of terms, that this territory is historically a part of Israel and should remain so in the future." (p.63) |
| Walid al-Omary, senior correspondent for Al Jazeera, accredited in Jerusalem, in The Search for Peace in the Middle East: A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue: Proceedings of the International Media Encounter on the Question of Palestine, United Nations Publications 2001 | "Terms that distort reality" | No indication | "I would also like to point out the use of certain terms that distort reality – for example, describing the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, and describing or calling areas not by their Arab names but by the name of the settlement, even though these have been Arab towns for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years." (p.53) |
| Richard Wilson, Jon P. Mitchell Human Rights in Global Perspective: Anthropological Studies of Rights, Claims and Entitlements, Routledge 2003 | "The areas of land captured by Israel during the ‘Six Day War’ of June 1967" | "The least politically problematic terms seems to me to be ‘the Occupied Territories’ or ‘the Occupied Palestinian Territories’." ( p.136 n.2) | "Other terms, such as Judea-Samaria (Yehuda-Shomron in Hebrew – sometimes combined with Azza (Gaza) and shortened to Yesha) are used by religious Jews, settlers and many Israelis to the right of the political centre (and are still used in much official Israeli documentation). The implication of the term is that the area was always part of Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel." (p.136 n.2) |
| Ali Abunimah, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, Macmillan, 2007 | "Biblical terms for regions roughly congruent with the West Bank" (p.196) | No indication | "Routinely used by the Israeli state and the mainstream Zionist movement to convey a territorial claim and historical presence." (p.196) |
| Eva Etzioni-Halevy, The Divided People: Can Israel's Breakup be Stopped?, Lexington Books, 2002 | [Israeli] "Left-wingers refer to the [...] territories as “The West Bank” (of the River Jordan), thus using a more neutral geographical connotation." (p.125) | [Israeli] "Right-wingers are wont to refer to a major part of the territories as “Judea and Samaria”, thus using an emotionally laden Biblical association." (p.125) | |
| Chaim Isaac Waxman, American Aliya: Portrait of an Innovative Migration Movement, Wayne State University Press, 1989 [34] | Biblical names for "the land captured by Israel in the Six-Day War". | "There seems to be no neutral way to refer to the land captured by Israel in the Six-Day War. The closest to such is probably ‘the Territories.” Without any adjective such as “occupied” or “administered”. [...] Those who do not accept the legitimacy of Israel’s claims over Judea and Samaria continue to call them by their pre-1967 Western name, “the West Bank”." (p.229 n.1) | |
| Samuel W.Lewis, The United States and Israel: Constancy and Chance in William B. Quandt (ed.) The Middle East: Ten Years After Camp David, Brookings Institution Press, 1988 pp.217-260 [35] | "The West Bank" | No indication | "[...] the West Bank, known to Begin only as Judea and Samaria" (p.221) |
| Evgeni M.Primakov, Soviet Policy toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict, in William B. Quandt (ed.) The Middle East: Ten Years After Camp David, Brookings Institution Press, 1988 pp.387-411, | "The West Bank, Israel's historic homeland" | No indication | "To make sure that no doubt would ensue about the final result of self-government for the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza, President Carter, on receiving the letter from Begin and Sadat, added an explanatory notation to the copies intended for the United States and Israel: ‘I have been informed that the expression ‘West Bank’ is understood by the Government of Israel to mean ‘Judea and Samaria’’." p.397. See also p.460 (for Carter's letter, reproduced there) |
| Raphael D. Frankel and Ilene R. Prusher, In West Bank, a 'Masada mind-set', USA Today 22 Aug 2005 [36] | The biblical name of the northern West Bank | No indication | "Physically, the mountainous settlements are harder for the army to close off. But ideologically, for settlers who only refer to this region by its biblical name, Samaria, this land is on an even higher ground." |
| User:Jayjg and a few other editors | 6-7 instances of individual non-Israelis using the term for the modern area [37] | About 20 instances of Israeli individuals or organizations using the term for the modern area [38] | |
| (Added 2 March 2009:) | |||
| David Newman, The Impact of Gush Emunim, Taylor & Francis, 1985 [39] | "West Bank" is "the more commonly accepted international terminology" (Preface p.ii) | "A note must be made concerning the use of terms in the book. [...] The use of the West Bank or Judea and Samaria; Shechem or Nablus; occupied or administered territories, all contain highly emotional political connotations. A set rule has thus been applied. In cases describing philosophies or viewpoints from the perspective of the actors in question, that most appropriate to them is used. In neutral analyses, the more commonly accepted international terminology is inserted. This makes for a variation in terminology, but one which appears to be most correct." (Preface p.ii) | |
| David Newman, The Evolution of a Political Landscape: Geographical and Territorial Implications of Jewish Colonization in the West Bank, Taylor & Francis, 1985 | "The names of the two historical Jewish kingdoms in this region at the time of the Israelite monarchy", "name given to the West Bank in Israel" | No indication | "Judea and Samaria is the name given to the West Bank in Israel. They are the names of the two historical Jewish kingdoms in this region at the time of the Israelite monarchy. In fact, the West Bank region consists of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. Following the Likud election victory in 1977, the area was no longer referred to as the West Bank in any official report or statement, the area was no longer referred to as the West Bank in any official report or statement, but only by the name of Judea and Samaria." |
| David Newman, The Resilience of Territorial Conflict in an Era of Globalization, Ben Gurion University, 2003 [40] | "Biblical terminology of the territorial irredentists" | No indication | "As expressed by the territorial irredentists and settlers within the Israel – Palestine context, the cession of territory is akin to tearing a limb from a living body or organism. This territorial metaphor is even stronger given the fact that the contested territory – the West Bank (or in the Biblical terminology of the territorial irredentists, Judea and Samaria) – is, in their eyes, more central to the historical experience of the Jewish people than are those territories which constitute the spatial core of the modern state and which are not contested by the Palestinian-Arab population, such as the metropolitan core of the Tel Aviv – Gush Dan region along the Mediterranean coast." (p.16) |
| Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, Defensible Borders for a Lasting Peace, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 2005 [41] | "The West Bank" | No indication | "Additionally, the State of Israel maintains longstanding historical, religious, and cultural bonds with the West Bank, known as Judea and Samaria to many Israelis." p.VII |
| Michael G. Clyne, Undoing and Redoing Corpus Planning,1997 | "(Biblical) Hebrew geographical terms" | "In between left and right fall terms like "the [West] Bank" and the neutral "Territories"". (p.397) | During a short period immediately after the 1967-war, the official term employed was 'the Occupied Territories'. It was soon replaced by 'the Administered Territories' and then by the (biblical) Hebrew geographical terms "Judea and Samaria". The latter were officially adopted and successfully promoted by the right wing governments (since 1977) and are still the official terms in use. (p.397) |
| Yaacov Iram, Hillel Wahrman, Zehavit Gross, Educating Toward a Culture of Peace, 2006 [42] | "Official Israeli terminology" | No indication | "They make up the absolute majority of the population on the West Bank, called "Judea and Samaria" by Israelis." (p.259) "[...]the occupied territories — Judea and Samaria in the official Israeli terminology [...]" (p.133) |
| Wallace Eugene March, Israel and the Politics of Land, Westminster John Knox Press, 1994 [43] | Biblical name for the West Bank | "Biblical names replace modern names. Samaria and Judea are used [in Israel] instead of Jordan or West Bank". (p.76) | "The West Bank was now routinely called Samaria (a biblical name) by many Israelis, implying that this area was to be viewed as belonging to modern Israel" (p.42) |
| James Gelvin, The Israel-Palestine Conflict, Cambridge University Press, 2007 [44] | "The territory's Biblical names" | "Most observers call [it] "the occupied West Bank" (p.9) | "The town of Hebron lies in an area that most observers call "the occupied West Bank" but that Israelis officially designate "Judea and Samaria" after the territory's Biblical names." (p.9) |
| Scot F. Stine, THE THREE POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE ACHIEVEMENT OF US INTERESTS (thesis), 2002 [45] | "Biblical names for the West Bank" (p.3, p.23) | "The restoration of Eretz Israel would mean the reclamation of the lands of Judea and Samaria, known today as the West Bank" (p.23) | No indication |
| Emile Sahliyeh, In Search of Leadership, Brookings Institution Press, 1988 [46] | "Biblical names" | No indication | "Yet by the mid-1970's, a growing segment of Israel's body politic defined the West Bank — which some Israelis referred to by the biblical names Judea and Samaria" — and the Gaza Strip as "liberated territories" and integral parts of the historic "Land of Israel". (p.1) |
| Graham E Fuller, The West Bank Of Israel: Point Of No Return?, RAND, 1989 [47] | "Biblical names" | No indication | "The terms "West Bank" and "occupied territories" refer to that part of Palestine known to the Israelis by the Biblical names of Judea and Samaria." (p.1) |
| Ian Lustick, Israeli State-Building in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: Theory and Practice, International Organization, 1987 [48] | "Traditional Zionist terminology" | No indication | "In traditional Zionist terminology, the Likud government dedicated itself to "building the Jewish state in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza district." (p.1) |
| Rachad Antonius, "The Relevance of Principles of International Law to the Israel-Palestine Conflict", 2003 [49] | "The names given by Israel to the West Bank" | No indication | "The terms ‘Judea and Samaria’ are the names given by Israel to the West Bank of the Jordan River." (p.12) |
| Laws of the State of Israel, Vol. 32, p. 58., Israeli Military Orders in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank 1967-1992, Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, 1993 (compiled in Souad R. Dajani, "Ruling Palestine: A History of the Legally Sanctioned Jewish-Israeli Seizure of Land and Housing in Palestine", COHRE/BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, 2005) [50] | Terms imposed by Israeli law | No indication | "Israeli law routinely refers to the West Bank as ‘Judea and Samaria’; that is, part of the ‘Land of Israel’. This designation was institutionalised into law by virtue of Military Order 187, Order Concerning Interpretations (Additional Instructions), of 17 December 1967. This Military Order “specifies that the term ‘Judea and Samaria’ is to replace ‘West Bank’ wherever it appears”. In 1977, in another measure to officially designate the West Bank as ‘Judea and Samaria’ for purposes of the law, the Government of Israel extended the Emergency Regulations for the Occupied Territories by passing the law significantly entitled Emergency Regulations (Judea and Samaria, Gaza Region, Golan Heights, Sinai and Southern Sinai –Criminal Jurisdiction and Legal Assistance) (Extension of Validity) Law, 5738-1977." (p.71) |
| AvItamar Rabinovich, Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs, 1948-2003, Princeton University Press, 2004 [51] | "Biblical term" that "expresses a claim to the heartlands of Jewish history." | No indication | "In the coded language of Israeli politics, the term "West Bank" is neutral but the biblical term "Judea and Samaria" expresses a claim to the heartlands of Jewish history." (p.10) |
| WATER RESOURCES OF THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY, United Nations report, 1992 | No indication | "Moreover, the principle of public ownership of unutilized water resources in what Israel termed "Judea and Samaria" also stems from the Jordanian legislation, article 59 of the Law of Natural Resources No. 37 of 1966 and not from Israeli legislation. Israel objects to the interpretation that the Israeli legislation on water has been extended to what it called "Judea-Samaria and Gaza district"." | |
| Eytan Gilboa, Public Diplomacy: The Missing Component in Israel’s Foreign Policy, Israel Affairs, Vol.12, No.4, October 2006 [52] | "Biblical name" | "The world has adopted the empty Arab term, ‘West Bank’" (p.722) | "Media bias and double standards help the Arabs dominate the ‘war of words’. Israel calls the territory captured from Jordan in the Six Day War by its biblical name, ‘Judea and Samaria’, but the world has adopted the empty Arab term, ‘West Bank’ (referring to the Jordan River). [...] [The BBC fails to mention] that the West Bank is referred to by Jews as ‘Judea and Samaria’." (p.722) |
| Virginia Q. Tilley, The one-state solution: a breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock, Manchester University Press, 2005 [53] | Historical terms | Not used any more | "The Jewish realms of antiquity — the legendary kingdoms of David and Solomon, regions once known as Judea and Samaria — were located primarily in these highlands, and the West Bank settlements are promoted to potential Jewish immigrants on grounds of "redeeming" or "returning to" the long-lost Jewish homeland." (p.34) |
| Sasha A. Ross, The Dilemma of Justice: How Religion Influences the Political Environment of Post-1948 Israel and Palestine, thesis, Baylor University 2005 | "Biblical names in line with the Zionist vision" | No indication | "The political act of naming and thereby claiming a territory as one’s own has influenced and pre-determined the conflict in various ways, not only through the streamlining of Hebrew and the use of biblical names that were in line with the Zionist vision but also through the categorical denial that other names—seen here in the symbolic importance of international law as much as the continuity of Arab-Palestinian culture—are accurate, such as the debate between the words “West Bank” versus their ancient Hebrew appellation “Judea and Samaria". (pp.2-3) |
| Hinnerk Gölnitz, International Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Barrier by Israel in the West Bank, University of Cape Town, 2005 | "Terms that imply that Israel's right of sovereignty will be asserted" | "Non-Israeli writers have, however, rarely employed the term 'Judea and Samaria' when referring to the political and legal status rather than historical and geophysical aspects of that region and have thus conditioned the public to accept its use in a political or legal context as other than neutral in value.
The 'West Bank', by contrast has been the term most frequently employed to designate the area. Although arguably the term implies sovereignty resting with the entity in control of the other Bank, Jordan, its frequent use by different schools of political opinion has rendered the term most neutral in value." (p.4) |
"Alternative terms most frequently employed are 'the West Bank of Jordan,' 'the former West Bank of Jordan,' Eastern Palestine,' and 'Judea and Samaria.' The terms must, however, be rejected as inappropriate for a legal analysis since they are insufficiently neutral. The first three terms imply sovereignty resting, respectively, with Jordan, with some entity other than Jordan, or with the Palestinian people. The term 'Judea and Samaria' implies, at least to the non Israeli reader, that Israel's right of sovereignty will be asserted." (p.4) |
| Kathleen Christison, Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy, University of California Press, 2001[54] | "West Bank, the name Arabs and most of the international community use" | "Terminology can also determine who owns a piece of land — or who the speaker believes owns it. In the case of the West Bank, the land can be called by the name Arabs and most of the international community use or by the names Judea and Samaria, used by Israelis who believe it is irrevocably Israeli land." (p.7) |
Ashley kennedy3's list
[edit]Usage ."the term is sometimes used within Israel; predominantly by "fanatical Jewish chauvinists" for political motives, to describe Illegal Jewish Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Shown by the term not being applied to Tel Aviv District.(Israel insider Ma'ale Adumim larger than Tel Aviv, I don't think so) Gush Emunim apply the term to the West Bank as a geopolitical manoeuvre devoted to an ideology "greater land of Israel".(Ha'aretz) The terms "Judea and Samaria" are also highly controversial in Israeli society itself, and are often employed specifically as a collective reference to the illegal Israeli settlements in that area, historically and presently, especially by Jewish settlers and their supporters.(Jpost Arutz Sheva) "Newsweek Nov 20 1995" [...] it stretches to the fanatical Jewish chauvinists who want to expel the Arabs from the land they call Judea and Samaria--a territory that, depending on how you read the Bible, could stretch past the Jordan as far as the Euphrates. Says Sternhell: "The minimum the religious Zionists can live with is the West Bank." "Newsweek Nov 13 1995" The religious settlers in the occupied territories believe that God gave them the West Bank--which they call by the Biblical names Judea and Samaria-and that no temporal leader can give the Promised Land away. Left-wing Israelis prefer "HaGada HaMa'aravit" (הגדה המערבית "The West Bank" in Hebrew) or "Hashetahim Hakvushim" (השטחים הכבושים, The Occupied Territories). Many Arab Palestinians object to this term as a rejection of their claim to the land. Nevertheless, the term al-Yahudiyya was-Samarah is used by Arab Christians in reference to the Bible.(Murqus, Sa'īd. Tafsīr kalimāt al-Kitāb al-Muqaddas, Cairo, 1996, in Arabic)Jewish daily As used by JVL in "The College of Judea & Samaria" where the college is described As a demonstratively Zionist institution, the College has two key requirements: every student must study one course per semester on some aspect of Judaism, Jewish heritage or Land of Israel studies, and the Israeli flag must be displayed in every classroom, laboratory and auditorium on campus.JVL
APCR again used by right wing extremists for West Bank.
Now lets' look at what the official name of the geopolitical area is:
US officially designates the West Bank the occupied territories....[55] Library of Congress [56]
Dore gold wants Disputed territories...[57] B'Tselem occupied territories [58]
Britain's position...Occupied territories. [59][60]
Ireland Occupied territories...[61]
UN occupied territories..[62]
Red Cross; The ICRC in Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Autonomous Territories [63] indexed under Palestine, interesting.
and yet wiki uses a term that is controversial in Israel.
RS sources; Gershom Gorenberg OT
David Kretzmer OT
Kitty Warnock OT
Felicia Langer OT
Idith Zertal, Akiva Eldar, Vivian Eden, Vivian Sohn Eden OT
Stephen C Pelletiere OT
Eyal Benvenisti OT
Joost R. Hiltermann OT
Emma Playfair OT
Erica Lang OT
Esther Rosalind Cohen OT
Linda Bevis OT
John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt OT
Paul Hunt OT
Ghāzī Khurshīd, Ibrahim Abid OT
Lynne Rosengrant Franks OT
Neil Alger DT
William B. Quandt DT
Colin Shindler; Judea and Samaria; Used in conjunction with the right wing ultra nationalist religious movement.
Joseph Telushkin JS Judea, Samaria, and Gaza: Views on the Present and Future By Daniel Judah Elazar Published by American Enterprise Institute, 1982 ISBN 0844734594
Term used according to the Israeli settlement policy in an effort to create ‘facts’ that would eliminate once and for all the possibility of repartitioning the land west of the Jordan river. PP 3 and 18
Religious Fundamentalism in Developing Countries By Santosh C. Saha, Thomas K. Carr Contributor Santosh C. Saha Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001 ISBN 0313311552, p 71 guess how it is used?
Free Speech and National Security: Most of the Papers Were Delivered at the Conference on ..., Held in Jerusalem in December 1987 By Shimon Shetreet Published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1990 ISBN 0792310306
Judea Samaria used to describe the Israeli settlements and West bank Gaza termed territories.
As with the Britannica, the article can be about the Historical Biblical myths or about the modern area. If it is used for the modern area then it should be noted that the term is used by extremist right wingers (as in a health warning) who openly talk of being against the Israeli government.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica starts straight off with "historical region, Palestine Hebrew Shomron" making it clear that it is a historical region not the new politicised region. A clear distinction should be made between the two.
Conclusions:
The name "Samaria" is used in two entirely separate ways.
- When referring to the Biblical area. (sometimes then abused by religious fanatics see use 2.)
- Used by "fanatical Jewish chauvinists" as a means of indicating the Occupied Palestinian Territories and or the settlements.
The article should therefore read:
"the term is sometimes applied contentiously within Israel; predominantly by 'fanatical Jewish chauvinists' for political motives, to illegal Jewish Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories."
...Ashley kennedy3 (talk) 07:01, 9 December 2008 (UTC)