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This article refers to an Israeli-controlled administrative area called Judea and Samaria Area. For the geographical regions known by the biblical names Judea and Samaria, see Judea or Samaria. For uses synonymous with the term "the West Bank", see that entry.

Judea and Samaria Area (Template:Lang-he-n, Ezor Yehuda VeShomron, also an acronym יו"ש Yosh or ש"י Shai; Template:Lang-ar, al-Yahudiyyah was-Sāmarah) is the official Israeli term roughly corresponding to the territory usually known outside Israel as the West Bank. Jordan occupied the territory and annexed it in 1950. The area was captured from Jordan by Israel in the 1967 Six Day war, and was considered an occupied territory in an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice. The United Nations has declared that resolution of the conflict must be based on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories it occupied in the war, in conjunction with the termination of all claims or states of belligerency. The term Judea and Samaria is generally taken to exclude East Jerusalem including those areas outside the original city boundaries which have been incorporated into the Jerusalem District by the Israeli government.

The term "Judea and Samaria Area" is also employed specifically as a collective reference to the Israeli settlements in that area, historically and presently, especially by Jewish settlers and their supporters. In this context it is listed as one of seven administrative Districts of Israel.

Many Arab Palestinians object to the term "Judea and Samaria" as a rejection of their claim to the West Bank. Some left-wing Israelis prefer "HaGada HaMa'aravit" (הגדה המערבית "The West Bank" in Hebrew) or "Hashetahim" (השטחים , The Territories).

Status

The Judea and Samaria area is administered by the Israel Defense Forces Central Command, and administrative decisions are subject to the command's chief. The incumbent chief of Central Command is Aluf Gadi Shamni.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, adopted after Israel captured the region from Jordan in the Six Days War, declares that Israel must withdraw from territories captured in the conflict, in conjunction with the termination of all claims or states of belligerency. The future status of the region is a key factor in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Terminology

The term "Judea and Samaria" was officially adopted by the Israeli government in 1967 but not used extensively until the Likud assumed office in 1977.

The name Judea, when used in Judea and Samaria, refers to all of the region south of Jerusalem, including settlements in Gush Etzion and Har Hebron. The region of Samaria, on the other hand, refers to settlements in all areas north of Jerusalem.

Administrative sub-regions

The district 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).

History

Samaria was one of the administrative districts of the British Mandate of Palestine. Reference to Judea and Samaria as a single unit is more recent, specifically since the time of their occupation and annexation by Jordan.

Municipalities

See also

• Israeli-occupied territories
• 1949 Armistice Agreements-
• List of burial places of biblical figures

References

1. Lau, Cotran (2005). "Yearbook of Islamic And Middle Eastern Law". BRILL. ISBN 9004144447. Retrieved 2008-11-11. First, it is now legally decided that the area between the Green Line and the Mandatory eastern border of Palestine is "occupied" and Israel remains a belligerent occupant. defined where the territories occupied by Israel are.
2. "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" (PDF). International Court of Justice. 2004. Retrieved 2008-11-11. the Court notes that the territories situated between the Green Line and the former eastern boundary of Palestine under the Mandate were occupied by Israel in 1967 during the armed conflict between Israel and Jordan. Under customary international law, the Court observes, these were therefore occupied territories in which Israel had the status of occupying Power.
3. UN Security Council resolution 242
4. Lustick, Ian (1998). "For the Land and the Lord : Jewish fundamentalism in Israel". Council on Foreign Relations. ISBN 0876090366. Retrieved 2008-11-06. For political purposes, and despite the geographical imprecision involved, the annexationist 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.
5. Bishara, Marwan (1995). "How Palestinians Should Use This Moment". Newsweek. Retrieved 2008-11-06. 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." {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |day= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
6. Thomas, Evan (1995). "Can Peace Survive?". Newsweek. Retrieved 2008-11-06. 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. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |day= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
7. • Ian Lustick (2002). The Riddle of Nationalism: The Dialectic of Religion and Nationalism in the Middle East. Logos, Vol.1, No-3. p. 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.). p. 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 right wing governments (since 1977) and are still the official terms in use.

• "Judea and Samaria", The Jewish Agency for Israel, undated, retrieved August 31, 2005

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

• Districts of Israel
• Geography of the West Bank
• History of Israel
• History of Jordan
• Palestinian history