Republican-led states to replace the term 'West Bank' with 'Judea and Samaria' in official documents

A number of Republican states have announced they intend to put forward legislation that would ensure Israeli-controlled areas in the West Bank are henceforth referred to as “Judea and Samaria” in official government documents.

The states intending to put forward the legislation include “Utah, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa and Oklahoma,” according to a report from Ynet News.

The report goes on to note that the decision was made after the state legislators met with Yossi Dagan at a conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Since 2015, Dagan has served as the Chairman of the Shomron (Samaria) Regional Council, which oversees 35 Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Dagan has been a leading voice in pro-settler activism and has been the subject of numerous assassination threats.

“We will never be afraid!” Dagan said after the sixth terrorist who threatened to assassinate him was arrested in April. “This is our land – and we will win…the Jewish settlement will only grow and get stronger.”

The announcement from Republican state legislators to recognize the settlements comes after Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed such a bill into law in April.

“It is the intent of the General Assembly to: (1) Refer to the land controlled by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War by its historical name of ‘Judea and Samaria’, with the land south of Jerusalem being considered ‘Judea’ and the land north of Jerusalem being considered ‘Samaria’; and (2) No longer use the term ‘West Bank’ in official government materials,” the bill stated.

There have also been recent efforts by federal legislators to put forward bills.

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, introduced a bill in December to enforce the use of the term “Judea and Samaria” in “all official US documents.”

“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria go back thousands of years,” Cotton said.

“The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.”