The place name “West Bank,” although universally used today, appeared out of thin air. More on this relatively recent invention can be found here: “A 19-Year Name vs. 3,000 Years of History: Judea vs. ‘West Bank,’” by Micha Danzig, Algemeiner, May 7, 2026:
Read a story about Israel from almost any major news outlet and you’ll see the same convention: “West Bank,” stated as fact, and “Judea and Samaria” treated as controversial.
In fact, these outlets all treat “Judea and Samaria” as a label used by Israel, often with a caveat that it is “biblical,” “right wing” or even “far-right.”
One term is presented as neutral. The other arrives with a warning. That is not linguistic housekeeping. It is a political choice, often made in a conscious way that reshapes history.
“West Bank” is a directional term. It describes where the land sits relative to the Jordan River. It was coined in 1949 by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after its army crossed the river in 1948, seized the territory as part of the Arab League’s declared war to annihilate Israel, and later annexed it. East Bank, West Bank. It is a geographic label attached to a military and political act. Jordan’s 1950 annexation was recognized by only a handful of countries and never produced a Palestinian state.
“Judea and Samaria” are not modern inventions, and they are not merely “biblical” in the dismissive sense often implied.
They are the names by which this region was known across centuries of rule, from antiquity through successive empires. They appear in ancient records, persist through administrative usage, and reflect a continuous historical vocabulary.
Even the 1947 UN Partition Plan — the plan that proposed to create the first independent Arab state in the Holy Land — referred to this area as the “hill country of Samaria and Judea” in describing the territory proposed for this new Arab state….
Move to 1948–1967. Jordan controlled what it called the “West Bank,” while Egypt controlled Gaza. No Palestinian state was created in either territory. There was no serious effort to create one. That absence is rarely emphasized, though it is central to claims about what the conflict has always been “about.”
Then there is June, 1967. Israel took control of Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, because its neighbors tried to wage a war to destroy it and kill or subjugate all its Jewish residents. However one evaluates the legal debates that followed, the sequence is not credibly in dispute. Yet retellings often begin later, presenting outcomes without any reference to the threats and actions that produced them.
None of this resolves the conflict. But it does something more basic. It restores sequence. It places events back in order and returns language to its context.
That context is what is lost when “West Bank” is treated as neutral, while “Judea and Samaria” is treated as suspect or extreme….
I think it is not enough to make people — make the world, in fact — aware that the place names “Judea” and”Samaria” have been in use for 3,000 years, and that the government of Jordan only replaced them with the term “West Bank,” for obvious political reasons, in 1950. Bills have been introduced in Congress to require the government to adopt, in all of its branches, use of the place names “Judea and Samaria” instead of the “West Bank.” Representative Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) reintroduced the RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act (H.R. 902) on January 31, 2025, in the 119th Congress, to require all official U.S. documents and materials to use the term “Judea and Samaria” instead of “West Bank.” Original cosponsors of the bill (House Bill (H.R.902) included Rep. Randy Weber, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, Rep. Mary Miller, Rep. Barry Moore, and Rep. Andrew Ogles. The bill aims to replace the term “West Bank” in federal documents, specifically targeting amendments to laws such as the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the United States-Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced the same bill in the Senate. Both bills need to be reintroduced for the 2026-2027 year.
This is an important matter: winning the war of words. Israel should have been raising holy hell about that “West Bank” place name ever since the Jordanians introduced it, but they had so many other things to worry about that they dropped the ball. It’s time to repair that error.
owensgate says
“Judea and Samaria”, the so-called “West Bank”, IS part of Israel. So called “Palestinians” already HAVE a “State” of their own; it’s called “JORDAN”! The REAL “Palestitians” are HEBREW. Just ask Emperor Hadrian. The PHONY “Palestinians” are Hashemite Arabs now living in Jordan. Funny, but that makes the first real Palestinian King, “King Saul”, a HEBREW! You can’t change History.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Even in the 1920s, when Jews started moving in and buying real estate there at inflated prices, the term “Palestinian” was used only to describe them, not the Arabs. Most of who moved in from adjoining areas once the Jews developed the place – like the parasites the mohammedans have always been
Taffy says
Strictly speaking, it was Judea-Samaria for 3000 years, but the West Bank moniker was created by Jordon in 1949, the year after Israeli’s war of Independence in 1948. Israel then took back its territory during the Six-Day War in 1967.
Lately, however, the MSM, the UN and governments that do not recognize that this is Israel’s traditional land, keep calling it Yje West Bank.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
I wouldn’t say they began to use the toponym “West Bank” only lately. As soon as the Jordanians came up with the name (I think it was in 1950, not 1949, that they began to use it) it was immediately adopted by much of the world. It will take a great effort to now bring back “Judea and Samaria.,” but it’s worth the fight. Let us hope that Congress adopts the legislation proposed by Tom Cotton in the Senate and Claudia Tenney in the House.
It’s amusing to realize that the place name “Gaza” has continued to be used, as it has been for 3000 years. I guess the Egyptians didn’t see any need to change it.
ploome says
fyi
an email sent to the address located on this site,
hughfitz123@msn.com,
rejected email as “undeliverable”
Taffy says
It doesn’t help when Israeli newspapers (e.g. Times of Israel) call it The West Bank in their daily publications
Wellington says
Three points:
1) The so-called West Bank is indeed a major part of Judea and Samaria and Israel has every right to it;
2) There already exists a Palestinian state; it’s called Jordan. Some 78% of the British Mandate for Palestine was sectioned off in 1921 to create a regime for Abdullah because the original plan to create a Syria for Faisal was screwed up by the French and so Faisal got what his brother, Abdullah, was supposed to get, i.e., Iraq, and so Britain had to create an artificial state for Abdullah, i.e., Jordan, originally called Transjordan and which to this day is populated by, guess who, far more than a mere simple majority of Palestinians.
3) Israel, the only nation on Earth which is regularly told it is illegitimate, can be accused of a major error, to wit, after the Six-Day War (1967) it did not formally annex the so-called West Bank which it took from Jordan and thereafter expel a Hell of a lot of Arabs from said territory just as the Czechs expelled Germans from the Sudetenland area after WWII. The Czechs did it right; the Israelis did it wrong.
This is all except to say, long live Israel.
James Lincoln says
Wellington,
Succinct and 100% accurate – thank you.
And, yes, Israel should have annexed the “West Bank” after the ’67 Six-Day War – and expelled all of the muslims.
ploome says
I agree that would have been good, but
maybe at that time, Israel did not have the population to hold and defend that territory…
the previous decade had seen a holocaust like no other
somehistory says
To people who read, study and **believe** the Bible, saying it is “Biblical” is nothing to sneer. Much of the Bible has been confirmed by archeologists: places, place names, wells, cisterns, people, rulers, wars, culture, etc.
Jesus didn’t tell of a man from the “west bank.” He told of a man from Samaria who was a “good Samaritan.”
Jesus spoke to a woman at a well, confirming to her that He was the Man expected, The Messiah. She was from Samaria.
The record of Jesus’ life, his childhood is just over 2 thousand years old. The record of Jesus’ ministry is not quite 2 thousand years old. The place names in the Bible are important.
One of His Apostles was a Judean.
There is nothing in the Ancient Historical Record supporting calling the area “the west bank.”
Israel seems to be the only nation not allowed to name its territory, its capital, streets or to decide who lives where or who is allowed to enter.
(The U.S. may be headed in that direction). But words are important and they are routinely used to denigrate God’s people, from ancient times until now.
James Lincoln says
somehistory says,
“Much of the Bible has been confirmed by archeologists: places, place names, wells, cisterns, people, rulers, wars, culture, etc.”
Yes, it sure has.
And the work continues…
somehistory says
Thank you, James. I really do enjoy reaching about each new “find” or “discovery.” It makes the Bible seem even more ‘alive and exerting power.’
Rick Gordon says
Western civilization has ignored the Middle Eastern migrant invasion for many years. Western nations have not fought the battle of words – letting extremists who wish to reframe or rewrite history take over education institutions and teach young generations their version of the truth. It will take years to undo such propaganda – if it can be done.
Sigi says
Thank you, Hugh Fitzgerald, for this fine article and all the following comments establishing the truth over this area. Most of the Christian world is historically totally blind and ignorant and is voluntarily desinformed by public TV and Press. I have seen the destroyed old Jewish quarters in the old city of East Jerusalem, facing the temple square in summer 1966. And we then travelled thru Judea and Samaria (then occupied by the Jordan King) in a car rented in Beirut, travelling thru Byblos, Sidon, Tyre, Lebanese cedar mountains, Baalbek, Damascus, Jerash, Petra, Mount Nebo, Dead Sea, Jericho, Qumran and then up thru the Judean Desert to Jerusalem where we returned the car free of charge! Just imagine that!
One year later the whole situation changed fundamentally and Israel’s territorial dimensions became finally what they are now and what was initially legally acted by the Society of Nations (forerunner of U.N.) San Remo Act of 1922 as homeland for the Jewish people, act which is still valid today and everybody is ignoring it.
Walter Sieruk says
What many people think of as the “West Bank” is actually the land of Judea and Samaria. by archeological and historic rights are the lands of Judea and Samaria.
That so called “West Bank” are really Judea and Samaria is likewise confirmed in the Bible.
Therefore, the Knesset is absolutely in the right for recognizing that area of land as Judea and Samaria.
In fact,, God had given all that land to the Jewish people. This may be found in the Bible, as seen in, for example, Genesis 28:13-15. 35:10-12. Deuteronomy 32:48,49. Psalm 105:7-11.
In other words the Jews have tall this land by Divine Right. Moreover, the Jewish people should have this land by historic rights as shown in First Kings 4:20,21, 24,25. 8:55, 56.
For the Bible informs its reader “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.” Psalm 135:4. [N.K.J.V.]
Walter Sieruk says
It’s impossible to have a genuine “Palestinian State” if in reality the is really no such thing as a “Palestinian people.”
Therefore this leads to a important question, which is “Are there really an ethnic or race of people who may be , rightly called the “ Palestinians” or is that just a hijacked term that the Arabs of the area in the Middle East now exclusively only to themselves without valid genuine proof that such a term is actually fitting for them.
Many reliable scholars and historians on Israel and the entire Middle East have ,rightly, answered that question. Two of them had together have compiled a book on this subject and had revealed, “The Palestinian leadership has repeatedly sought to legitimize their right to the land, by claiming it belongs to them and not the Jews. One of their BIG lies is that the land was always referred to as Palestine. Historically, this is inaccurate ! There has never been a Palestinian state in the history of the world.”
The authors further explain that “The Roman Emperor Hadrian , following the second Jewish revolt led by Simon Kochba , changed the name of Israel to Syria Palestina which he took from the Hebrew word Pelesheth, which we know as Philistia . Why ? Because the Jews hated the Philistines and this was a slap in the face to them.”
Those writers also added that “”What difference does this make ? …. “ They then explained, because it gives the false impression that there was a land of Palestine in ancient times and perpetuates the lie that the Jews took away the Palestinian land.”
In conclusion, “Palestine’ is a man- made fiction therefore, there is no ethnic group or race of people who are real“ Palestinians.” Likewise, the “Palestinian flag is a fake” flag.”
By great contrast, Israel is an historic and Biblical reality, Psalm 135;4.
The book source is entitled Miracle of Israel by Gary Frazier and Jim Fletcher , pages 177,178 179.