Terminology
Judea and Samaria are biblical names of the territory roughly corresponding to the area now usually referred to as the West Bank. Samaria and Judea roughly corresponds to the territory of the ancient Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, also known as the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms. After the fall of the Northern Kingdom 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. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Trans-Jordan, renamed Jordan in 1949, renamed the area on the west bank under its control following the cessation of hostilities the "West Bank" (Arabic: الضفة الغربية aḍ-Ḍaffah l-Ġarbiyyah) to distinguish it from the rest of the kingdom, which falls on the Jordan River’s east bank. The area was captured from Jordan by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. While the term "Judea and Samaria" was officially adopted by the Israel in 1967 it was not used extensively until 1977.
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. Much of the area of the West Bank closest to Jerusalem, including that part of the city that was under Jordanian rule, 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.
“Jewish hawks often refer to the territory beyond the green line by the biblical names Judea and Samaria, thereby suggesting that it was, and always will be, Jewish land”, Peter Beinart wrote in an Op-ed in The New York Times, adding: “Almost everyone else, including this paper, calls it the West Bank”.
The terms West Bank (HaGada HaMa'aravit: הגדה המערבית), or, alternatively, The Territories (Hashetahim: השטחים) are also current in Israeli usage.
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