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Judea and Samaria District
- transcription(s)
• Hebrew	Template:Hebrew
• Arabic	يهودا والسامرة
Cities	4
Local Councils	13
Regional Councils	6
Capital	Ariel
Area
• Total	5,878 km (2,270 sq mi)
Population
• Total	368,000 (Israeli citizens only)

Judea and Samaria Area (Template:Lang-he, Ezor Yehuda VeShomron, also an acronym יו"ש Yosh or ש"י Shai; Template:Lang-ar, Yahuda was-Sāmerah) is the official Israeli term for the territory generally known as the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem.

Terminology

The area of the Judea and Samaria district covers a portion of the territory designated by the biblical terms Judea and Samaria. Samaria corresponds to part of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, and Judea to part of the Kingdom of Judah, also known respectively as the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms. After the fall of the Northern Kingdom (720 BCE), Israel was renamed Samaria (Shomron), and during the Hellenistic and Roman periods the name Judah was hellenized to Judea. In modern times, Samaria was the name of one of the administrative districts of the British Mandate of Palestine. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine, adopted in 1947, referred to "Samaria and Judea" as part of a proposed Arab state to be carved out of the Mandate of Palestine but the boundaries of "Samaria and Judea" did not precisely coincide with the current Judea and Samaria Area.

Following the occupation of the West Bank by Israel in 1967, the Israeli right began to refer to the territories by their biblical names and argued for their integration into Israel on historical, religious, nationalist and security grounds. The term "Judea and Samaria" was officially adopted by Israel in 1967 when the Israeli military government 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”". Though it was rarely used until 1977 when Menachem Begin, a proponent of extending Israel's sovereignty to the region, became Prime Minister.

The name Judea, when used in Judea and Samaria, refers to all of the region south of Jerusalem, including Gush Etzion and Har Hebron. The region of Samaria, on the other hand, refers to the area north of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem has been incorporated into Jerusalem District and is under Israeli civilian rule. That part of the West Bank is thus excluded from the administrative structure that is the Judea and Samaria Area.

The terms West Bank (HaGada HaMa'aravit: הגדה המערבית), or, alternatively, The Territories (Hashetahim: השטחים) are also current in Israeli usage.

Status

The Judea and Samaria area is administered by the Israel Defense Forces Central Command, and Military law is applied. Administrative decisions are subject to the Command's chief. The incumbent chief of Central Command is Aluf Nitzan Alon.

The future status of the region is a key factor in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, adopted in November 1967, after Israel captured the region from Jordan in the Six Day War, lists as its first principle “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security” and called for the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” in conjunction with the “termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force”.

The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip are considered occupied Palestinian territories by the United Nations and its member states including the United States, the International Court of Justice the European Union, and by non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem. The Israeli High Court of Justice has considered the section of the West Bank which excludes East Jerusalem to be Israeli-occupied territories

On 13 May 2012, a bill to extend Israeli law to the Israeli settlements in the Judea and Samaria area initiated by MK Miri Regev (Likud) first approved by the majority of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation was rejected in a second round of votes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed his ministers to vote against the bill. Extending Israeli law to the settlements would mean a de facto annexation of the settlements to Israel. In July 2012, a government-commissioned report by the Levy committee asserted, based on a number of reasons, that there is no legal basis under international law to refer to Judea and Samaria as "occupied territory". Article 43 of the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907 is the basis of the Levy Committee's opinion. It's opinion may be found on the Internet with an English translation.

Administrative sub-regions

The area is further divided into 8 military administrative regions: Menashe (Jenin area), HaBik'a (Jordan Valley), Shomron (Shechem area, known in Arabic as Nablus), Efrayim (Tulkarm area), Binyamin (Ramallah/al-Bireh area), Maccabim (Maccabim area), Etzion (Bethlehem area) and Yehuda (Hebron area).

Municipalities

See also

• Israeli Civil Administration
• State of Judea
• Israeli-occupied territories
• 1949 Armistice Agreements
• List of burial places of biblical figures

References

1. ^ Neil Caplan (19 September 2011). The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-4443-5786-8.
2. "Statistical Abstract of Israel 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 15 January 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
3. Alan Dowty (11 June 2012). Israel / Palestine. Polity. pp. 130–131. ISBN 978-0-7456-5612-0.
4. 
   
   • Ian Lustick (2002). The Riddle of Nationalism: The Dialectic of Religion and Nationalism in the Middle East. Logos, Vol.1, No-3. pp. 18–44. 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.
   • Myron J. Aronoff (1991). Israeli Visions and Divisions: Cultural Change and Political Conflict. Transaction Publishers. p. 10. "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.
   • Shlomo Gazit (2003). Trapped Fools: Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories. Routledge. p. 162. 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.
   • Emma Playfair (1992). International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories: Two Decades of Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Oxford University Press. p. 41. 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.
   • Ran HaCohen (1992). Influence of the Middle East Peace Process on the Hebrew Language. Undoing and Redoing Corpus Planning, Michael G. Clyne (ed.). pp. 385–414, 397. 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 governments (since 1977) and are still the official terms in use.
5. "Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967" (PDF). UN. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
6. "West Bank". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
7. "Disputes - International: Gaza Strip". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
8. "Occupied Palestinian Territory". EEAS (European External Action Service). Retrieved 17 October 2011.
9. "Annual Report 2011". Amnesty International. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
10. "Israel and the Occupied Territories". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
11. "Land Expropriation and Settlements in the International Law". B'Tselem. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
12. "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Request for advisory opinion) - Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004" (PDF). International Court of Justice. 9 July 2004.
13. "The High Court of Justice HCJ 7957/04 ruling on the fence surrounding Alfei Menashe". Haaretz. 15 September 2005.
14. Jonathan Lis (13 May 2012). "In about-face, Israeli ministers block bill to annex West Bank settlements". Haaretz. Retrieved 31 May 2012.

External links

• Jonathan Kaplan. "The Territories", on the website of The Jewish Agency for Israel:

Part 1, Part 2

v t e Judea and Samaria Area
Cities	Ariel Beitar Illit Ma'ale Adumim Modi'in Illit
Regional committee	Yesha Council
Regional councils	Gush Etzion Har Hevron Mateh Binyamin Megilot Dead Sea Shomron Southern Jordan Valley (Bik'at HaYarden)
Local councils	Alfei Menashe Beit Aryeh-Ofarim Beit El Efrat Elkana Giv'at Ze'ev Har Adar Immanuel Karnei Shomron Kedumim Kiryat Arba Ma'ale Efrayim Oranit
See also	Israeli occupation of the West Bank Enclave law Area C COGAT Israeli Civil Administration IDF Central Command Israeli settlement List Population statistics Seam Zone Jerusalem District

31°45′N 35°00′E / 31.750°N 35.000°E / 31.750; 35.000

• Use dmy dates from October 2011
• Districts of Israel
• Geography of the West Bank
• History of Israel
• History of Jordan
• History of Palestine
• Israeli-occupied territories
• Judea and Samaria Area